E. & O. E.

During the compilation of the IIP for January, 2012, the ministry of statistics press statement yesterday read, “the sugar production was wrongly taken as 134.08 lakh tonnes in place of actual figure of 58.09 lakh tonnes”. That’s it, there’s no other explanation for how such a glaring error could be allowed to go unnoticed—the more than doubling of sugar production is what led to consumer non-durables growth to shoot up to 42.1% instead of 11% and overall IIP growth for January to 6.8% versus the corrected 1.1%. Sure, chief statistician TCA Anant said the incorrect reporting had taken place at the conumer ministry’s end, but surely the most basic of filters should have picked up such a huge change—indeed the ministry should have wanted to tom-tom the dramatic surge in sugar production as an achievement of the government! If this was the only instance of getting it awfully wrong, it would be ok, but over the years, the IIP has become one big joke. 

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