This week on Hafta, Abhinandan Sekhri and Rinchen Norbu are joined by Vivek Kaul, a Mumbai-based author and columnist, Puja Mehra, a senior economic journalist and author, and veteran environmental journalist Hridayesh Joshi. 

The discussion opens with India's recently released 7.8% GDP growth rate for the April–June quarter. Vivek argues that the number cannot be read in isolation. The change in the GDP methodology and base year has substantially altered earlier estimates, including a major downward revision in private consumption. 

“While the headline GDP number may be suggesting what it is… there are other real numbers which are available out there.” Kaul remarks. He points to private consumption, employment, household debt and other indicators to argue that the state of the economy cannot be understood from one headline GDP number alone. 

Puja Mehra adds an important caveat: GDP is not like weighing one kilogram of fruit and expecting the scale to always give the same answer. “GDP, you get to define what GDP is and then measure it in the way you have defined it.”

Speaking on ex-finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s claim that the quarterly GDP growth rate figures are less than 2.5%, Vivek says, “Subhash Chandra Garg did what the BJP has been doing to us for all these years… He made a quick point, he made a simplistic point, which was wrong. But by the time the corrections stepped in, by the time the fact checkers came in, the thing had already gone viral.”

The discussion then transitions to the devastating flash floods that originated along the Nepal-Tibet border and the larger question of climate justice.  

Discussing Nepal’s demand that major emitters compensate it for climate-related damage, Hridayesh makes a distinction between pollution today and historic emissions. Nepal’s argument, he says, is rooted in the idea of climate “loss and damage” and the disproportionate vulnerability of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region. But he also warns that India cannot simply point fingers outward. “Nepal’s demand is justified, but we should also look within, including India.”

Referring to German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hridayesh says, “The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”

All this and more.