At a glance
India’s five economic scorecards, in four facts
Oldest Index
The IIP has run since 1937. It’s India’s oldest official economic indicator.
Newest Index
The ISP launched in July 2026, giving services their own monthly index.
New GDP Base Year
2022-23, effective from February 2026, replacing the older 2011-12 base.
Five Tracks, One Economy
IIP, ISP, GDP, HDI, and MPI. Each measures something the others don’t.
On this page
Five Scorecards for One Economy
1.1 Why doesn’t India use just one number for its economy?
No single number can capture everything about an economy. Output, income, and human welfare are three different things. Picture a country building more factories and exporting more steel every year. Its output is clearly rising. But if wages stay flat and children still go hungry, ordinary lives haven’t improved much. A country can grow its output while leaving many people behind. So India runs several separate indicators instead of one.
1.2 What are the five indicators, and what does each one track?
Think of these five indicators like a full-body medical checkup, not one blood-pressure reading. Each test looks at a different organ. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) tracks monthly output from mining, manufacturing, and utilities, the “factory floor” of the economy. The Index of Services Production (ISP) does the same job for services, like banking, IT, and retail. GDP and per-capita income measure the economy’s total size, and its average share per person. See National Income Accounting for how those are built. The HDI and MPI ask a different question entirely: not how much is produced, but who actually benefits.
Who Actually Builds Each Index
2.1 Which body compiles IIP, ISP, and GDP?
The National Statistical Office (NSO), under MoSPI, compiles all three. It’s the common source behind most of India’s own output data. That shared source is one reason these three indicators use similar release schedules and methods. Think of the NSO as one central kitchen, cooking three different dishes from the same government data.
2.2 Who compiles HDI and MPI instead?
The HDI is different. It’s compiled by the United Nations Development Programme, not an Indian agency. It ranks nearly every country on the same global scale, so India’s score can be directly compared with any other country’s. India’s MPI, by contrast, is compiled domestically, by NITI Aayog. It’s built specifically around India’s own household survey data, which lets it dig into details a global index would miss.
Q1. True or False: Mortality rate is one of HDI’s three official dimensions.
Different Clocks, Different Questions
3.1 How often does each index actually update?
These five indicators run on very different clocks. It’s a bit like checking your weight every morning, but only measuring your height once a year. The IIP and ISP release monthly, since factory and services output shift fast. GDP releases quarterly and annually. The HDI and MPI update roughly once a year, sometimes less often, since deep survey work takes time. Knowing the release rhythm helps you spot a wrong answer fast.
3.2 Why does knowing “which index answers what” actually matter?
None of these five is “the” measure of the economy. Each one was built to answer one specific question. Exam questions often hinge on knowing exactly which index answers which question. A plausible-sounding wrong index is the most common trap here.
Q2. True or False: The Index of Services Production (ISP) measures the same thing as the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
What HDI and MPI Actually Measure
4.1 What exactly are HDI’s three dimensions?
HDI combines exactly three dimensions into one score. They are health, measured by life expectancy. Education, measured by expected and average schooling years. And income, measured by GNI per capita. That’s why two countries with similar GDP can still land at very different HDI ranks. One might have longer life expectancy and better schools, and so score higher. Exam papers love to swap in a fourth, plausible-sounding dimension that isn’t real.
4.2 What does India’s own MPI add beyond the Global MPI?
India’s MPI uses the Alkire-Foster methodology, the same base method as the Global MPI. But it has twelve indicators, not the Global MPI’s standard set. Maternal Health and Bank Account are indicators India added on its own. The Maternal Health indicator checks whether any woman in the household died during pregnancy or childbirth. The Bank Account indicator checks whether at least one household member holds a bank or post-office account. Neither one is shared with UNDP’s global version.
Worth remembering: India’s MPI is not just a local copy of the UNDP’s Global MPI. It shares a methodology. But its actual indicator list is India-specific.
Q3. True or False: India’s own MPI uses the exact same twelve indicators as the UNDP’s Global MPI.
GDP’s New Ruler and Two Decades of Statistics Day
5.1 Why did GDP’s base year move to 2022-23?
Think of a base year like the starting price tag economists compare everything else against. Prices, products, and habits all change over time, so an old base year stops reflecting how people actually spend money. In February 2026, MoSPI released a new GDP series with base year 2022-23. It replaced the earlier 2011-12 base year. 2022-23 was chosen as a recent, comprehensive post-pandemic normal year. Under this new series, Q1 FY 2026-27 GDP growth came in at 7.8% real and 10.3% nominal.
5.2 What did 20 years of Statistics Day and the latest SDG numbers show?
On 29 June 2026, MoSPI marked its 20th Statistics Day. The date honours statistician P.C. Mahalanobis’s birth anniversary. Alongside it, MoSPI released its SDG Progress Report 2026, tracking 277 national indicators. Social-protection coverage rose from 22.0% in 2016 to 65.3% in 2026. Maternal Mortality fell from 122 to 87 per 100,000 live births over the same period.
Q4. True or False: India’s new GDP series, released in February 2026, uses 2022-23 as its base year.
Traps Worth Knowing Before Your Exam
6.1 What trap does the HDI-dimensions question set love?
CDS (II) 2024 asked which dimension is NOT part of HDI. The correct trap answer was mortality rate. HDI’s three real dimensions are health, education, and income, not mortality on its own. CDS (II) 2021 went further, asking which of India’s own HDI components actually improved. Life expectancy and GNI per capita rose, but schooling years stayed flat.
6.2 What trap does the MPI-indicators question set love?
UPSC CSP 2026 tested India’s own MPI in detail. It correctly uses the Alkire-Foster methodology, with twelve indicators. But Maternal Health and Bank Account are indicators India added beyond UNDP’s own version, not ones the two share. Don’t assume India’s MPI is a plain copy of the Global MPI. See Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for the fuller breakdown.
Quick Q&A
Why does India track its economy with five separate indicators, not one?
Output, income, and human welfare are three different things. A single number can’t capture all three at once.
Which body compiles the IIP, the ISP, and India’s GDP?
The National Statistical Office (NSO), under MoSPI. It’s the common source behind most of India’s own output data.
What are HDI’s three official dimensions?
Health, measured by life expectancy. Education, measured by schooling years. And income, measured by GNI per capita.
What did India add to its MPI beyond the Global MPI’s indicator list?
Maternal Health and Bank Account. Both are India-specific additions, not part of UNDP’s global version.
What base year does India’s newest GDP series use?
2022-23, effective from the February 2026 release. It replaced the earlier 2011-12 base year.
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