New Delhi, July 8 -- Author and columnist Surjit Bhalla strongly dismissed allegations that India's GDP data is manipulated, describing such criticism as "the stupidest" levelled against the country's economic policymaking.

Rejecting claims that India's GDP figures are unreliable, Bhalla said the criticism lacks merit. He also dismissed the notion that India's sheer size automatically makes it a large consumer market, arguing that the economy of the US state of California is comparable in size to India's despite being a single state.

In an interview with ANI, Bhalla, a former part-time member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Economic Advisory Council, said there was no credible evidence to support allegations that India's GDP figures w...