India's statistics ministry has a new sense of purpose

The flurry of activity to get India's statistics right is laudable but we await regulatory design clarity

- PRAMIT BHATTACHARYA

After long years of stasis, there seems to be a flurry of activity at the Union ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi). Long-delayed surveys have been released. New surveys are being planned. Engagement with data users has become much more open and frequent. Mospi's strained relationship with the National Statistical Commission (NSC) appears to be on the mend.

A push for change has come from the top. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the finance ministry seem to have realized that India's statistical crisis has hurt the credibility of official numbers. As reported in this newspaper earlier ('Statistical system now under PMO scanner,' 23 January 2024), a roadmap for statistical reforms was prepared by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). This was followed by discussions with key stakeholders, including Mospi officials and NSC chairman Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar.

In April, the government appointed a new Mospi secretary, Saurabh Garg, to implement its reform agenda. Garg seems to have hit the ground running. Over the past six months, Mospi has organized a number of data-user conferences to clarify doubts and questions related to some key surveys. It has reached out to business houses to take inputs for a new capex survey. It has reached out to academic institutions to collaborate on statistical research projects. It has initiated plans to revise some of India's key statistical indices. The committees set up for these revisions appear to be more diverse than earlier.