This study examines the consistency between the AVHRR and MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets in estimating net primary productivity (NPP) and net ecosystem productivity (NEP) over India during 2001–2006 in a terrestrial ecosystem model. Harmonic analysis is employed to estimate seasonal components of the time series. The stationary components (representing long-term mean) of the respective NDVI time series are highly coherent and exhibit inherent natural vegetation characteristics with high values over the forest, moderate over the cropland, and small over the grassland. Both data exhibit strong semi-annual oscillations over the cropland dominated Indo-Gangetic plains while annual oscillations are strong over most parts of the country. MODIS has larger annual amplitude than that of the AVHRR. The similar variability exists on the estimates of NPP and NEP across India. In an annual scale, MODIS-based NPP budget is 1.78 PgC, which is 27% higher than the AVHRR- based estimate. It revealed that the Indian terrestrial ecosystem remained the sink of atmospheric CO 2 during the study period with 42 TgC y −1 NEP budget associated with MODIS-based estimate against 18 TgC y −1 for the AVHRR-based estimate.