A Standing Committee on Statistics will review the framework and outcomes of all surveys carried out below the aegis of the National Statistical Office. File illustration: Sebastian Francis
The authorities has constituted a new inside oversight mechanism for official data, revamping a Standing Committee on Economic Statistics (SCES) arrange in late 2019, quickly after the findings from the final spherical of family surveys on consumption expenditure and employment had been junked, citing ‘data quality issues’.
In an order issued final Thursday, the Statistics Ministry stated that the SCES — which was tasked with analyzing financial indicators solely — will now get replaced by a Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS) which has a broader mandate to review the framework and outcomes of all surveys carried out below the aegis of the National Statistical Office (NSO).
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Pronab Sen, India’s first chief statistician and the previous chairman of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), has been named the chair of the new committee.
‘System overhaul needed’
The SCoS — with “enhanced terms of reference” vis-à-vis the SCES, “to ensure more coverage” — has 10 official members, and 4 non-official members who’re eminent teachers. The panel can have up to 16 members, as per the order issued by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
The growth assumes significance amid sharp critiques of India’s statistical equipment by members of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, together with its chairperson Bibek Debroy. He had mooted an overhaul of the system and contended that the Indian Statistical Service has “little expertise in survey design”.
“The term of the SCES was coming to an end in any case, so it was decided to expand the committee’s mandate beyond economic data and advise the Ministry on technical aspects for all surveys, such as sampling frame, design, survey methodology and finalisation of results,” an official stated.
Plugging data gaps
Apart from addressing points raised from time to time on the topic, outcomes and methodology for all surveys, the SCoS’ phrases of reference embrace the identification of data gaps that want to be stuffed by official statistics, together with an applicable technique to plug these gaps. It has additionally been mandated to discover using administrative statistics to enhance data outcomes.
While the panel will assist finalise survey outcomes, the NSC could have the last word authority to approve the publication of these outcomes. The authorities had reconstituted the NSC final December, appointing Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar, Professor Emeritus on the Chennai Mathematical Institute, as its part-time chairperson. While the NSC nonetheless has two vacancies, the appointments of Mr. Karandikar and two different part-time members had been notified on May 30 this yr.
The SCES, which had 28 members, together with 10 non-official members, was additionally chaired by Mr. Sen. The panel was mandated to review the framework for financial indicators pertaining to the economic sector, the companies sector and the labour power statistics. This meant that their purview was restricted to datasets just like the Periodic Labour Force Survey, the Annual Survey of Industries, the Index of Industrial Production and the Economic Census.
