Is The Indian Economy Slowing Down?
That is a bit of a misleading title, because the focus of this blogpost isn't about answering the question. It is, rather, about how to go about answering this question.
If you are a student new to economics, and someone were to ask you the question that is the title of this blogpost, how would you go about answering this question?
Note that GDP data comes with a lag of about two months. You really should be looking at more recent data. But that being said, a good place to begin will be by tracking India's quarterly GDP growth for the past (say) twelve quarters or so. This is actually bad advice for this specific time period, because of the pandemic, but under usual circumstances, not a bad place to start.
Take a look at electricity generation numbers for the country. Check if there has been an increase, and if so, by how much.
Check the trends in GST collections.
Check trends in freight movement.
Take a look at the Index of Industrial Production data.
Take a look at India's foreign trade data. Note that I have not used the word trend for these two points. That's not because trends aren't important (they are!) but because I want to lament the fact that India - the country that makes software for literally the entire world - isn't able to come up with better ways to represent its own government's data. Why does this not improve?!
Take a look at the "Quarterly Financials of Listed Companies" on the CMIE website. Take a look at the trends for Net Profits and the PAT margins. This is usually on the right hand side of the website, you'll have to scroll down a bit.
Use the same website to take a look at the employment data.
Take a look at the inflation data.
Take a look at the bank credit data.
Finally, note that this list is by no means complete. Other economists might well have more indicators they would like to recommend, and please don't hesitate to show this list to them, and ask what they might like to include.
Then, and only then, should you start to read opinion pieces about how well/badly the Indian economy is doing. See if your assessment matches with what is written or being said by others. If it doesn't, ask yourself why. Check if you should look at other data sources, or other opinion pieces.
But as an economist, remember: data comes first.