India has a crucial role in setting international statistical standards

We could use our new membership of the UN Statistical Commission to advocate a widening of the way that GDP is measured

- ASHISH KUMAR RAMA KAMARAJU

Last fortnight recorded a watershed moment for the statistical community in the country with our unanimous election to the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) after a gap of two decades.

The membership is for a term of four years, beginning from January 2024. There is also a possibility of India chairing the commission during this tenure. Why is UNSC membership and potential chairmanship so significant and how is it going to help India and the global south? The UNSC, established in 1947, is the highest body of the global statistical system. It brings together the chief statisticians of member states from around the world. It is the highest decision making body for international statistical activities, responsible for setting statistical standards and the development of concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international level. India, as a UN member and signatory to statistical standards issued by the Commission from time to time on various thematic areas, adopts these to implement; and the statistics so developed play a critical role in our planning processes. They also enable comparability across countries through various indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross Value Addition (GVA) and other measures that emerge from various statistical processes, like household survey data, employment-unemployment statistics, price statistics, health accounts, tourism accounts, environment accounts, etc.