PRINCETON, New Jersey: The late, sharp-witted economist Michael Mussa, my first boss at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), once told me that every statistic must pass the 'smell test.' I recalled this sage advice recently when Indian authorities published the first driblets of a consumption survey in over a decade. The numbers stink.

Economists have long maintained that India's official gross domestic product (GDP) data overstate growth. Before the September 2023 Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, the Indian National Statistical Office issued a particularly brazen overestimate. The last decennial census was in 2011. A survey highlighting stubbornly high malnutrition and anemia cost the survey's director his job.