Knowledge Systems Committee Proposes SNA 2025-Aligned Thematic Accounts for India's Knowledge Economy

The news

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has invited public feedback on the final report of the Committee on Knowledge Systems, which proposes a framework to measure the contribution of knowledge and knowledge products to the Indian economy. The committee, constituted on 5 May 2026 under the chairmanship of former Economic Advisory Council member Ratan P. Watal, submitted its Actionable Policy Paper to the ministry. Stakeholders and the general public can send suggestions to rau-2@mospi.gov.in by 12 December 2026.

The paper recommends developing a family of thematic statistics and accounts consistent with the System of National Accounts 2025, rather than a single aggregate measure, because comprehensively measuring the entire knowledge ecosystem simultaneously is infeasible. It identifies eight interrelated components of the knowledge ecosystem: knowledge, capabilities and assets, enabling infrastructure, knowledge creation activities, knowledge products, knowledge-embedded products, knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship and knowledge application. Five guiding boundary conditions for identifying knowledge products are proposed: knowledge as input, knowledge content, identifiability, codification and economic value, with the note that these are broad principles rather than rigid criteria.

The committee proposes a federated model with three roles: system integrators providing the common measurement framework, domain institutions including sectoral ministries measuring specialised components, and key partners such as state governments, regulators and research institutions. Priority areas suggested for thematic accounts include human capital, research and development, the creative economy, artificial intelligence systems, data and databases, high-tech products, frontier technologies and the digital economy. The paper notes that related measurement work is already underway in India, including a Culture Satellite Account initiated in 2025, a framework for the space economy, and a 2025 study estimating the digital economy's contribution to GDP for 2022–23.

What is the System of National Accounts 2025?

The System of National Accounts (SNA) is the internationally agreed standard for compiling national economic statistics, maintained jointly by the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the OECD and the European Commission. The framework provides a comprehensive set of concepts, definitions, classifications and accounting rules for measuring gross domestic product and related macroeconomic indicators. The 2025 version is the latest major revision, succeeding the SNA 2008, and introduces updated treatments for globalisation, digitalisation, well-being and sustainability. The SNA has evolved through successive revisions since its first post-war version was published in 1953, with major updates in 1968 and 1993 before the 2008 and 2025 versions. A satellite account is a supplementary statistical framework that expands the analytical capacity of the central SNA for a specific field without overburdening the core accounts, allowing themed measurement such as tourism, environment, culture or digital economy within standardised rules.

How did the committee arrive at this framework?

The exercise began with a meeting chaired by Principal Scientific Adviser Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood on 10 February 2025. MoSPI then constituted a Technical Advisory Group in May 2025 under Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, then Member of the Capacity Building Commission. A brainstorming workshop was held on 30 September 2025, and expert consultations followed. The insights informed a base paper released in May 2026, on which the Watal committee built its actionable policy paper.

What are the proposed priorities and institutional roles?

The paper recommends that priorities among ecosystem components be assigned based on their contributions to growth, productivity, competitiveness, inclusive growth and livelihoods, future significance and cost-effective measurability. Under the federated model, system integrators would provide the common measurement framework; domain institutions, including sectoral ministries and departments, would measure specialised components; and key partners would include state governments, regulatory institutions and research and academic institutions. The recommendations and the federated model remain proposals for consideration, not completed accounts.