Unlike the Finance and Infrastructure Ministries, the Statistics Ministry is, scheduled to make its presentation to the Prime Minister along with the Home Ministry. The Statistics Ministry oversees the major sources for economic data such as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).
In the absence of frequently updated data, policy planners have to extrapolate old data such as the five-year cycle for employment data from the NSSO.
“With no social security payments there is no incentive in India for the unemployed to register, so there is no regular joblessness data. Five years is too long a gap for jobs survey -- it’s the term of a government,” says Aditya Birla Group chief economist Ajit Ranade.
“Economic data has to be reliably sourced, accurate and as close to real time as possible for policy responses to be meaningful and then for validation of outcomes of the policy decisions taken. The Modi government will find it worthwhile to invest in upgrading the data machinery,” he said.
Problems with economic data include long lags in making baskets truly representative such as in the case of the wholesale price index (WPI), which does not include services even though the rises in the cost of health services and education are among the biggest components on household budgets.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed several committees for recommendations on economy data. One such committee, headed by a member of Dr. Singh’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC) Saumitra Chaudhury, gave a report earlier this year on how to resolve the issues in the Index for Industrial Production. Another committee headed by EAC chairman C. Rangarajan is expected to submit a report soon on issues pertaining to poverty estimates.
*This copy is edited for a factual error
