India’s Economic Survey 2020 Cites Wikipedia as Data Source

Govt used Wikipedia as data source for Economic Survey 2020 (Twitter)

India’s Economic Survey 2020 has cited Wikipedia as a source of data in one of its chapters. In Chapter 7, namely ‘Golden Jubilee of Bank Nationalization : Taking Stock‘, two charts, on pages 150 and 151, have cited the online encyclopedia as sources.

The first figure shows the number of banks to make it to the Global Top 100 in 2019. The figure explains how India’s banks are disproportionately small compared to the size of its economy.

The Survey points out: “In 2019, when Indian economy is the fifth largest in the world, our highest ranked bank — State Bank of India — is ranked a lowly 55th in the world and is the only bank to be ranked in the Global top 100.”

The second figure highlights this disproportionate dwarfism of the Indian banks when compared to the size of the Indian economy.

Citing Wikipedia as a source has earned the ire of netizens, who were surprised/shocked to see the citation in “one of the most important documents of the government”.

India's latest Economic Survey 2019-20 refers to Wikipedia as a data source in a couple of places in the report. No question we're reaching new heights of scholarship. This has got to be a first. pic.twitter.com/S0YGTPxLzS

— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) January 31, 2020

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

वाह जी वाह,आर्थिक सर्वेक्षण जिसके आधार पर सरकार अपनी नीतियाँ बनाती है, उसका आधार Wikipedia है। Wikipedia एक ऑनलाइन encyclopedia है जिसको ग़ैर पेशेवर लोगों द्वारा लिखा व बदला जाता है।जब ज्ञान व degree Whatsapp से ली जाती हो तो देश की नीतियाँ Wikipedia के आधार पर ही बनेंगी। pic.twitter.com/cUDOJM1fMo

— Prof. Gourav Vallabh (@GouravVallabh) January 31, 2020

Besides Wikipedia, the Survey has also relied on data from other private sources such as Bloomberg, ICRA, CMIE, Indian Institute of Management (Bengaluru), Forbes and the BSE.

Data have also been sourced from International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, CIBIL, National Sample Survey Office, Department of Consumer Affairs, United Nations, SIDBI.

The Survey is also marked by quotes from Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, Rig Veda, Adam Smith’s ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’, Kautilya’s Arthashastra, and Tamil saint and philosopher Thiruvalluvar’s treatise The Thirukural.

(News Sources input – Moneycontrol & India Today)