India is the world's fourth largest economy when it comes to purchasing power parity, according to the World Development Indicators issued by the World Bank on Sunday.
By conventional calculations, India's gross national income is only $477.4 billion, but it translates into $2,913 billion PPP.
The United States [$9,781 billion in both conventional and PPP], China [$5,027 billion in PPP] and Japan [$3,246 billion PPP] are ahead of India, the indicators, which cover statistics for 2001, state.
These 'Big Four' are followed by Germany [$2,580 billion PPP], Britain [$1,431 billion PPP], France [$1,425 billion PPP] and Italy [$1,422 billion PPP].
To arrive at PPP, regarded as a true reflection of a country's economy and the purchasing power of its people, all goods and services are calculated at US prices.
The conventional method is to give the figures for each country in its currency and then translate it into dollars at the foreign exchange value.