New Delhi: Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday sharply criticised Opposition leaders and former officials questioning India’s 7.8% GDP growth in the April-June 2026 quarter, accusing them of comparing figures from different GDP series and calling them “the only jobless people left.”
Speaking at the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) annual session, Goyal said critics were comparing the old 2011-12 base-year series with the new 2022-23 series and urged them to “compare apples with apples.” He said ministers do not manufacture economic data and warned against attempts to “distort the truth.”
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan questioned whether the growth figures were real, citing discrepancies and asking why strong growth was not producing more jobs and investment.
Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg also said the 7.8% headline figure needed closer scrutiny because of revisions to the GDP base.
Goyal rejected the criticism, saying businesses were instead reporting labour shortages. He cited textile manufacturers in Tirupur seeking 100,000 workers and Larsen & Toubro saying a shortage of manpower was limiting expansion.
The minister credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India’s growth and criticised those portraying the country as a “dead economy.” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had called the GDP figures a “Greatly Distorted Picture.”
The statistics ministry separately clarified that ₹86.05 lakh crore belonged to the old series and could not be compared with the new series. It said the change was not a deliberate downward revision to inflate growth.
