How big is the Indian economy, really?
Until a few months ago, India’s GDP was $850B. With the rupee’s rapid move from 44 to 41 versus the US dollar, and another good quarter put in by corporate India, we now stand at $1 Trillion. But is that really it? How do we account for our parallel economy?
Estimates of black money, unrecorded and untaxed, circulating in the economy have varied widely from time to time. In 1967-68, it was placed at Rs 3,034 crore. But by 1978-79, it had soared to Rs 46,867 crores— more than 15 times in just 12 years. Black money was estimated to be 9.5% of GDP in 1967-68, rising to 49% of GDP in 1978-79 and 50.7% in 1987-88.
So, we may have a bigger GDP that what people think, more billionaires that the official count, more unaccounted gold holdings than anyone else - you get the picture!
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