3 min readMumbaiFeb 12, 2025 08:24 AM IST
First published on: Feb 11, 2025 at 09:47 AM IST
In a revival of an idea shelved in 2021, the government is looking to capture the knowledge economy as a metric to supplement the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The aim is to develop a framework to comprehensively capture the impact of knowledge on economic and social life in the country.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) had a session on “Conceptual Framework of Gross Domestic Knowledge Product (GDKP) Measurement” on Monday chaired by Principal Scientific Advisor Ajay Kumar Sood.
Sood underlined the importance of shifting from economic indicators to a knowledge-centric measurement approach by noting that a refined methodology for GDKP would better capture the contributions of knowledge-driven sectors, innovation, and intellectual assets to India’s economic growth.
Satellite Account
At present, all expenditures on Intellectual Property Products (IPP) are recorded under Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) — the indicator for capital investments in the GDP dataset for the economy.
MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg said the session was being held to explore if a satellite account to measure the knowledge base of an economy can be worked out.
The ministry has been working with concerned ministries in compiling satellite accounts, namely tourism satellite accounts, culture satellite accounts, ocean and blue economy accounting, he said. It was discussed that a formulation to capture the knowledge economy is essential but not available.
MoSPI will also form a technical committee to evaluate the proposal and provide guidance on measuring the knowledge economy.
NITI Proposal
The GDKP concept was previously discussed in 2021 after a NITI Aayog presentation on the concept note exploring its development in the Indian context.
The National Statistical Commission had pointed out then that the concept note did not provide the methodology for capturing the data and computation of GDKP. “This exercise would require not only identification of knowledge parameters but it also requires tweaking of parameters which would reflect the real status of the outcome,” it had said, adding that the overall concept has a lot of subjectivity and requires further elaboration.
MoSPI had also noted that the concept paper suggested the GDKP would serve as such an indicator supplementing the GDP measure, but fell short of specifying how it is going to supplement the GDP in measuring welfare.
“Data for GDKP may not be readily available and in such circumstances perception based surveys would have to be conducted. A portion of GDKP is already being captured in GDP.
Although GDKP may augment the GDP, integrating GDKP and GDP would require a proper methodology,” MoSPI had said. After a review by NITI Aayog in August 2021, the project was then shelved.
India’s growth so far has been powered by services, IT exports, and consumption. These have delivered gains, but do not constitute the deep, durable foundation that a science-driven economy offers. 
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