Reimagining Industrial Era GDP

Context:  There are many problems associated with the Industrial era Gross domestic product (GDP) calculation

Issues with the current method of GDP calculation:

• Does not measure human well-being : 

• It takes a positive count of the cars we produce but does not account for the emissions they generate
• It adds the value of the sugar-laced beverages but fails to subtract the health problems they cause.
• It includes the value of building new cities but does not discount for the forests they replace.
• It focuses more on the production and consumption of mobile phones but does not appreciate the ill-effects of increased mobile usage in the form of acute anxieties.

• Complications in the calculation:

• Difficulties in accounting imported goods: due to unknown import prices of goods which are  smuggled to evade all import duties
• High inflation: impact these imports leading to declining in the future GDP.

• Current GDP measure ignores data economy: The data economy is left to the mercy of foreign venture capitalists.

• While GDP measure in India focuses more on the availability of finance, land, and other incentives to traditional sectors like Mining, import-and-assembly and the stock market.