The fake duck test.

"Fake commentary can be defined as using existing data, whatever the source, and misrepresenting the findings," raged eminent economist Surjit S Bhalla. Professors Asoka Mody and Raghuram Rajan are targets of his ire. The periodic labor force survey (PLFS) is conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Government of India. Taking "labor and workforce participation rates" from the PLFS and "Applying these to UN population data for India shows that between the two ends of the last decade, 2011 (2012) and 2021(2022), total employment in India increased from 433 million in 2011 to 487 million in 2021." But, why is Bhalla mixing PLFS data of the Indian government with UN population data? "Once every decade, for over a century, every Indian and their household's characteristics have been enumerated," wrote Mihir Sharma. The last census was held in 2011 and was due in 2021, the years of Bhalla's reference. "But for the first time, India's decennial census -which was set to be held in 2021 - has been delayed, with no clarity on when it will be held." BBC. "India's current government has a somewhat difficult relationship with data. Various surveys and calculations, from the national income accounts to household consumption patterns and jobs data, have been canceled or reviewed." Bhalla has issues with the low female labor force participation rate (FLFPR) in India because it fails the "duck test". "We know that 15% of pilots in India are women - the highest in the world. We also know that according to the World Bank, 42.7% of women in India were STEM graduates." So what explains the low FLFPR? The International Labour Organization (ILO) stopped counting unpaid housework as employment. For example, "taking care of cattle for milk consumed at home" no longer counts as work. Clearly, women STEM graduates do not want to milk cows. To add to the confusion, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a private research organisation reported that, "Between 2017 and 2022, the overall labour force participation rate (LFPR) dropped from 46 percent to 40 percent." India Times. LFPR is the number of people who are employed or actively looking for work divided by the total working age population. Investopedia. Which means that, "Now, more than half of the 900 million Indians of legal working age - roughly the population of the US and Russia combined - don't want a job." "Among women, the data is even starker. About 21 million disappeared from the workforce, leaving only 9 percent of the eligible population employed or looking for positions." The confusion is explained by the report that about half of all graduates in India are not fit to be employed because they have not been taught anything. BS. Bhalla may be a great patriot but he must not mix statistics. That is really fake.