India’s June quarter GDP print is courting controversy. Here’s why

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the inauguration of chipmaker CG Semi's OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing) facility in Sanand on July 4, 2026. (Photo by Shammi MEHRA / AFP via Getty Images)Shammi Mehra | Afp | Getty ImagesIndia's faster-than-expected economic expansion of 7.8% in the June quarter is under scrutiny after a former government official alleged the reading was artificially boosted by compressing the prior year's figures.Many major economies such as the U.S., China and Japan are seeing their growth cool down due to adverse trade conditions, geopolitical uncertainties and high energy prices. Not so with India, the world's fastest-growing major economy. Subhash Chandra Garg, who served as finance secretary between 2017 and 2019, has claimed that India's gross domestic product (in current prices) for the April-June quarter of 2025 was lowered by 6 trillion rupees ($63.5 billion) to 80 trillion in the recent data. That reduction, he said, means the latest quarter's GDP of 88.27 trillion rupees comes out more favorably in a year-over-year comparison.India's chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageshwaran, in an interview with local media on T...