Modi Is Correct (Mostly) On GDP, Literacy Claims

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second trip to America was characterised by a much hyped town hall meeting at social media giant Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California. While replying to various questions fielded, Modi made several claims regarding India’s growing global importance, as well as his vision for India. Claim 1: India is currently an $8 trillion economy [1].

FactCheck Verifies: Modi could be referring to data released by International Monetary Fund (IMF), which said India’s gross domestic product (GDP) on purchasing power parity (PPP) terms in 2015 is $7.9 trillion or nearly $8 trillion [2]. We also checked other sources like World Bank, according to which India’s GDP in PPP terms in 2014 was $7.4 trillion [3]. We also checked the Economic Survey (2014-15), which did not measure GDP in PPP terms. Modi also said--without specifying a year--his dream was to make India into a $20-trillion economy. There might be a hitch here. If this growth projection is based on PPP terms, then that could be challenged, as PPP is a function of variables such as inflation and currency, which cannot always be predicted. This makes it difficult to extrapolate PPP for growth. The World Bank, for instance, defines PPP as “the number of units of a country's currency required to buy the same amounts of goods and services in the domestic market as (the) US dollar would buy in the United States”. If, on the other hand, Modi meant India would be a $20-trillion economy, that would be laudable but that would mean the Indian economy would have to be larger than the US ($18.1 trillion) and China ($18.9 trillion) at current levels on PPP terms.

Claim 2: Modi claimed he had achieved 100% literacy among girls during his time as Gujarat Chief Minister [4]. FactCheck Verifies: Around 90% of female children in Gujarat, aged 7-15, are literate, according to census 2011, 10% short of Modi’s 100% literacy claims [5]. We also looked at the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), District Information System for Education (DISE) and the Socio-Economic Review, Gujarat (2014-15) during the course of our research.

REFERENCES: [1] Speech: 8 min 35 seconds:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWh9aMycz9s [2] International Monetary Fund: http://bit.ly/1RdpNhs [3] World Bank: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD [4] Speech: 39 min 35 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWh9aMycz9s [5] Census, 2011: http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-series/C08.html