He said India should change the way it measures economic progress and bring some serious changes in the work culture if it wants to truly compete with countries like China.
Calling India’s GDP fake, the 56-year-old said that currently, India calculates GDP mostly based on money being exchanged, even if the real work is not happening. He said, “Our
GDP is all wrong. And I just – you just need two seconds to take a look at how they are computing GDP.”
Giving an example, he said, “In India, if I give you ₹ 1,000, 18% GST is taxed on it, and you give back ₹ 1,000 to me, 18% is counted as ₹ 2,000 of GDP. You’ve done no work. I have done no work. I’ve just given you money. Giving money is not work. Correct work is work.”
He argued that India’s economic metrics were deeply flawed. He compared it with the way GDP is calculated in nations such as the US, where economic output is correlated with the value of labour and actual hours worked.
Bhatia said, “Everybody has an hourly rate. Everybody figures out how many hours of effort you put in and you report that to the government and you pay a certain amount of tax, and that determines your GDP.”
He said every job, from labourer to doctor and lawyer, should have a fixed hourly rate and should be paid based on how much they actually work.
Asked how this could be possible, Bhatia said that everyone should be on a contract, where they report their own work hours. He also suggested using AI to help track and manage such work. He said, “Put everybody on a contract. A contract is what? Make a promise to yourself. You will self-report. You will do this, and it will help you be honest in your reporting. Simple. Use AI. Massively use.”
He added that India’s work culture was not efficient or productive enough as people focussed too much on status, power, and marks rather than doing meaningful or creative work.
He also criticised India’s education system, saying that people are pushed to become managers instead of skilled engineers.
Bhatia said that people in China who graduate as engineers tend to work as engineers and not go into management like in India. He pointed out that “99% of engineering graduates join management and start giving gyaan to everybody.”
“Where is the work ethic where they really work with their hands and really go and build some stuff?” he questioned.
This is not the first time Bhatia has criticised India’s systems. Earlier, in February, he raised concerns about the Aadhaar project being expensive.
He suggested that instead of using expensive biometric methods, the government could have opted for more cost-effective and widely available technologies like video and voiceprint recognition, which are already embedded in most smartphones.
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