DefinitionNational Income Committee defines national income as "the value of commodities and services produced in an economy during a given period, counted without duplication."
Pre-Independence Estimates of National Income: Since there was no official body in India to prepare National Income estimate before Indian Independence, the same was prepared by some eminent personalities in their personal capacity. Dadabhai Naoroji, fondly called the Grand Old Man of India, was the pioneer in this field. He prepared the first estimates of National income in 1876. He estimated the national income by first estimating the value of agricultural production and then adding a certain percentage as non-agricultural production. However, such method can only been called as a non-scientific method. The first person to adopt a scientific procedure in estimating the national income was Dr. VKRV Rao in 1931. He divided the Indian Economy into two parts
Two different methods were used for estimating the income in the two sectors. Product method was used for estimating income in agricultural sector and income method was used for estimating income in the corporate sector. Finally, Net Factor Income earned from abroad was added to the sum of the above two to obtain national income.
The Government of India appointed National Income Committee in 1949. The committee was chaired by Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis and had Prof D.R. Gadgil and Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao as members . The first report of the committee was presented in 1951. According to the first report, the National Income of India for 1948-49 was Rs. 8,710 crore and the per capita income was Rs. 225.
Since 1955 the national income estimates are being prepared by Central Statistical Organisation.
The Central Statistical Organisation has divided Indian economy into three basic sector for the purpose of evaluation of various data. They are
The CSO uses different methods like the Product Method, Income Method and Expenditure method for various sectors in the process of estimating the National Income.
National Income may be calculated on current prices or at constant prices. Currently, the base year for measuring national income and per capita income at constant prices is 2004 - 05, introduced in Jan 2010.
National Income does not include data from the following activities
1. Who estimated the National Income for the first time in India?
2. National income is generated from
3. ‘Green Accounting’ means measuring the National Income of the country taking into account estimation of
4. Which of the following is not included in the National Income ?
5. The rate of economic growth of a country is measured by the rate of growth of national income at
6. Who was the Chairman of the National Income Committee constituted in 1949?
1.(b) 2.(a) 3.(c) 4.(b) 5.(d) 6. (d)