Ctrl C + Ctrl V: Story of economic surveys in Karnataka

BENGALURU: Over the past three years, Karnataka's voluminous economic surveys — aimed at providing comprehensive macro and microeconomic insights into govt schemes, challenges, and the way forward — appear to have become an exercise in ‘copy and paste'.
Analysis of the economic surveys for 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 shows large portions of the report have been repeated verbatim, with not even a comma or full stop altered in certain sections. For instance, under the heading ‘Schemes (H/Acs),' a 10-line explanation of the lack of sunset clauses in schemes and their impact on the state's fiscal space has been reproduced word-for-word for three consecutive years, with only the numerical data in accompanying tables updated.

Similarly, the entire chapter devoted to urban development — spanning 17 pages — has been copied and pasted across all three economic surveys in the post-pandemic years. Several key sections, including "E-waste," "E-mobility," "Waste to resource," "Green bonds," and "Challenges to urbanisation," have remained unchanged in both context and language, raising questions about the rigour and relevance of these reports.
Officials from Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DSE) claim the responsibility lies with individual govt departments, which supply the data for the survey.
"If the urban development chapter has remained the same, the department concerned should be questioned since we obtain approvals from the heads of departments before publication. This applies to the finance and all other departments," officials said.
While acknowledging that schemes often remain unchanged across different administrations, officials could not explain why sections on "challenges" and "ways forward" have not been updated.
Basavaraj Rayareddi, economic adviser to chief minister Siddaramaiah, criticised the ‘copy-paste' approach and accused the department of economics and statistics of being inattentive.
"There is a need to revamp the department and enforce greater accountability on the secretary of planning and the vice-chairman of State Policy and Planning Commission," Rayareddi said.