What GDP does and doesn't tell us about India
GDP is the most quoted and least understood number in Indian public life. A field guide to what it measures, what it misses, and how to read it.
Dev Patel
Understanding India
through data
Chart-led stories on India’s news, business, markets and economy — written in plain language, anchored in the numbers.
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India's manufacturing output, sector by sector
Electronics and pharmaceuticals are pulling away from the pack, while textiles tread water. A visual audit of the index of industrial production.
Sana Qureshi
How India's monsoon shaped this year's food inflation
A patchy June and a heavy August moved vegetable prices more than any policy decision did. We trace the rain, mandi by mandi.
Meera Kulkarni
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How India's monsoon shaped this year's food inflation
A patchy June and a heavy August moved vegetable prices more than any policy decision did. We trace the rain, mandi by mandi.
Meera Kulkarni
A decade of Nifty 50 returns, in one chart
Ten years, three crashes, one pandemic — and an index that still compounded near 12% a year. The long view on Indian equities.
Arjun Nair
India's manufacturing output, sector by sector
Electronics and pharmaceuticals are pulling away from the pack, while textiles tread water. A visual audit of the index of industrial production.
Sana Qureshi
What GDP does and doesn't tell us about India
GDP is the most quoted and least understood number in Indian public life. A field guide to what it measures, what it misses, and how to read it.
Dev Patel
Urban unemployment fell again. The fine print is more interesting
The headline rate is at a survey-era low, but the composition of new work — self-employment versus salaried jobs — tells a subtler story.
Meera Kulkarni
The rupee is weaker — and more stable — than ever
The INR has drifted past 90 to the dollar, yet its volatility is among the lowest of any emerging-market currency. Both facts matter.
Arjun Nair
The startup funding reset, two years on
Venture funding has stabilised well below the 2021 peak — and founders have quietly rebuilt their unit economics around the new normal.
Arjun Nair
How India counts inflation, and why your grocery bill disagrees
The CPI basket was weighted from a 2011-12 consumption survey. Your household in 2026 spends nothing like that. An anatomy of the gap.
Dev Patel
UPI's next hundred million users live in small-town India
Transaction data shows the fastest growth in payments is no longer in the metros. Tier-3 towns and rural districts are driving the curve.
Ishita Rao
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The long compounding of the Nifty 50
Nifty 50 index level, year-end close
Source: NSE historical data; illustrative levelsShare or embed this chart
News
The stories in the headlines, re-read through the numbers behind them.
How India's monsoon shaped this year's food inflation
A patchy June and a heavy August moved vegetable prices more than any policy decision did. We trace the rain, mandi by mandi.
Meera Kulkarni
Urban unemployment fell again. The fine print is more interesting
The headline rate is at a survey-era low, but the composition of new work — self-employment versus salaried jobs — tells a subtler story.
Meera Kulkarni
UPI's next hundred million users live in small-town India
Transaction data shows the fastest growth in payments is no longer in the metros. Tier-3 towns and rural districts are driving the curve.
Ishita Rao
Business
How Indian companies, sectors and industries are actually performing.
India's manufacturing output, sector by sector
Electronics and pharmaceuticals are pulling away from the pack, while textiles tread water. A visual audit of the index of industrial production.
Sana Qureshi
The startup funding reset, two years on
Venture funding has stabilised well below the 2021 peak — and founders have quietly rebuilt their unit economics around the new normal.
Arjun Nair
Global capability centres are rewriting white-collar India
Over 1,700 GCCs now employ close to two million people. The data shows they are climbing the value chain faster than the IT services giants did.
Arjun Nair
Market
Indices, currencies, yields and flows — what the tape says about India.
A decade of Nifty 50 returns, in one chart
Ten years, three crashes, one pandemic — and an index that still compounded near 12% a year. The long view on Indian equities.
Arjun Nair
The rupee is weaker — and more stable — than ever
The INR has drifted past 90 to the dollar, yet its volatility is among the lowest of any emerging-market currency. Both facts matter.
Arjun Nair
How SIP money changed who owns the Indian market
Systematic investment plans now channel over ₹26,000 crore a month into equities. Domestic investors, not FIIs, set the marginal price.
Arjun Nair
Blogs
Long-form explainers on the ideas and methods behind the data.
What GDP does and doesn't tell us about India
GDP is the most quoted and least understood number in Indian public life. A field guide to what it measures, what it misses, and how to read it.
Dev Patel
How India counts inflation, and why your grocery bill disagrees
The CPI basket was weighted from a 2011-12 consumption survey. Your household in 2026 spends nothing like that. An anatomy of the gap.
Dev Patel
Survey vs satellite: the new ways India is being measured
Night-time lights, GST invoices, FASTag pings — administrative and remote-sensed data are filling gaps the surveys leave. With new blind spots of their own.
Dev Patel
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4 articles
News
The stories in the headlines, re-read through the numbers behind them.
4 articles
Business
How Indian companies, sectors and industries are actually performing.
4 articles
Market
Indices, currencies, yields and flows — what the tape says about India.
3 articles
Blogs
Long-form explainers on the ideas and methods behind the data.