The last few weeks have seen a cluster of economic data from India that points in different directions; GDP remains about 9 per cent lower than in the year before even as government spokesmen have argued that the growth that has been achieved goes beyond the effect of the “low base” of 2020-21.

While the formal sector has had a commendable performance, the broader informal sector remains gridlocked - India’s GVA for the first quarter fiscal year 2021-22 was 7.8% lower than the same period two years ago, even as corporate results suggest that formal sector GVA may have increased by over 18% over the same period.

Mitali Mukherjee spoke with Ananth Narayan, professor of finance at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research to make sense of all the data, and whether India was on a path to recovery or relapse.

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