A software business, a bank using that software and a researcher developing an AI system can all belong in a discussion of India’s knowledge economy. Adding up their activities is another matter.
A consultation opened on November 13, 2026, proposes a way to organise that measurement. It does not announce a new estimate of the knowledge economy’s size.
The Breakdown
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is seeking comments by December 12, 2026, on its Committee on Knowledge Systems report. The committee recommends several coordinated thematic accounts, rather than one aggregate measure.
Proposed priorities include human capital, research and development, AI systems, data and databases, creative activity, high-tech products and the digital economy. The accounts would follow the System of National Accounts 2025, the international statistical framework.
Responsibilities would be shared: a common measurement framework, specialist work by sectoral institutions, and participation from states and research organisations. These remain recommendations under consultation.
India already has an example of the measurement problem
A January 2025 ICRIER study for the electronics and IT ministry estimated the digital economy at 11.74% of national gross value added, or GVA, in 2022–23. GVA measures value created after deducting intermediate inputs. That is an older estimate for a defined digital economy, not a new figure for the broader knowledge economy.
Its methodology illustrates the practical work involved. When combining digital industries with digital activity in traditional sectors, the researchers deducted activity already included elsewhere to avoid counting it twice. Its additional estimates for trade, financial services and education used survey-based digital shares. Those adjustments reduce overlap, but survey coverage and some remaining double-counting risks limit the estimate.
The lesson is not that every proposed account should use the same method. It is that the boundary and adjustments are part of the answer. A percentage without them can conceal what has actually been measured.
Why This Matters
For a company assessing an AI or digital market, economic contribution is not automatically the same as customer spending available to that company. A sector can create value using technology without buying all of that technology from an external supplier.
For policymakers, separate accounts could make different questions easier to examine: where research takes place, where capabilities are developed and where technology is applied. That usefulness depends on clear definitions and reliable underlying data, not merely a new label.
The Crunch
The consultation is about how to measure knowledge-intensive activity, not proof that its contribution has suddenly increased. The next useful evidence will be the methods and estimates that emerge, with their coverage and overlaps made clear.
Related categories: Technology & AI
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