 "Neelkanth Mishra, UIDAI chairperson (part-time), said the idea was to invest in seed scale startups that might not require a large chunk of capital to begin with")
World Bank Executive Director Neelkanth Mishra
By Ruchi Bhatia
A range of high-frequency indicators show India’s economy is gaining momentum, said World Bank Executive Director Neelkanth Mishra, pushing back against skepticism over whether strong headline growth reflects conditions on the ground.
The figures have intensified scrutiny of the country’s revamped national accounts series and revisions to earlier growth estimates. The opposition Congress party has questioned the data, with senior leader Jairam Ramesh describing the changes as “statistical gymnastics.”
Mishra pointed to indicators outside official government data, including vehicle sales, cement volumes and credit demand, which he said were “actually doing very well” in a Bloomberg TV interview Friday.
Read More: India’s Growth Beat Suggests Economy on Cusp of Investment Boom
Corporate earnings are also improving and there is “adequate evidence” that capital expenditure is picking up, he told Haslinda Amin and Menaka Doshi.
“Many people are looking at that 7.8 number and saying this is not our lived reality,” World Bank Executive Director Neelkanth Mishra. “The fact that people don’t feel that the economy is robust is because there is still slack in the economy.”
Mishra also cautioned against reading too much into any single quarterly GDP print, while arguing that the broader trend remains strong.
First Published: Sep 04 2026 | 11:38 AM IST
