Recently, a debate took place on the pages of the Indian Express about the quality of survey-based data released by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) (Ravi 2023). Before that, doubts about the quality of Indian official statistics data and methodology used for estimating important social developmental indicators were aired through two working papers issued by the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) (Sanyal et al 2023; Ravi et al 2023). When a couple of eminent economists of impeccable credentials raise serious doubts about the quality and accuracy of some key statistical products that are supposed to reflect, directly or indirectly, the performance of the economy, it is incumbent on the statistical professionals to take these criticisms seriously and put out their non-partisan views to the public at large.