Business Standard invents quote from Arvind Panagariya, Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission, falsely claims Editorial opinion was written by him
Arvind Panagariya, the chairperson of the 16th Finance Commission, has asked media outlet Business Standard to show him where he wrote the Editorial opinion they have attributed to him. Taking to X, the Economist and the chancellor of Nalanda University wrote, “Dear BS, care to share with me where I wrote this?”.
Panagariya was responding to a post by Business Standard that had attributed a quote in an Editorial to him, claiming he had ‘written’ it.
The post by Business Standard was shared at 9.16 AM today on April 22. However, the article shows it was published on April 21, at 9.17 PM.
It read, “The 16th Finance Commission has about 6 months to submit its report. There is a need to reduce and rationalise CCS while the increasing level of debt in several states also needs to be addressed. Higher debt in states will create growth and stability risks,” writes Arvind Panagariya. It had even tagged Panagariya’s handle on X.
The linked article has Panagaria’s image. It is titled ‘Resource allocation: Finance Commission needs to address multiple issues’. The article is categorised as an Opinion piece under ‘Business Standard Editorial Comments’ section.
Business Standard is yet to correct the attribution or provide any explanation for their mistake.
X users have also expressed shock at the blatant mistake that is yet to be even acknowledged. “Business Standard wrote an entire Editorial without the author’s permission or knowledge? Reason why I call them B*ll S**t India”, wrote one user.
Another user joked under Panagariya’s post, “They are using predictive AI. You will be writing this a few weeks later”.
Padma Bhushan Arvind Panagariya is a noted Indian Economist who was appointed as the Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission by the government of India. He also holds the position of Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University, New York City. He served as the Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog from 2015 to 2017 and was earlier the chief economist of the Asian Development Bank.
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