India's main inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), is set for another major update, even though it has been in its current form for only about 15 years.
'All governments are scared of a negative image.' 'Somehow, this government has a tendency to create a narrative that things are improving.' 'When the real data gives a different picture, they are upset.'
With the two members quitting, the NSC now has only two members -- Chief Statistician Pravin Srivastava and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
'Coming up with a uniform formula is important at least for central government-conducted examinations.'
'What is going on is the under counting of the migration population in urban areas.' 'It has been going on in the last few censuses.'
The next Census' findings will help identify the extent of India's ageing population and vulnerability levels.
With the dissolution of former chief statistician Pronab Sen-led Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS) by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the National Statistical Commission (NSC) has regained prominence as the primary statistical body to address issues regarding results, methodology and questionnaire, among others. A MoSPI official in an email informed the 16-member SCoS about the decision to dissolve it, citing that its work was "overlapping" with that of the Steering Committee for National Sample Surveys (NSS), which was set up in June this year.
Updated new base years for national accounts and other macro-indicators are expected to come into effect from January-February 2026, coinciding with the first and second advance estimates of national income for FY26, senior official sources aware of the development told Business Standard. "The statistics ministry set up the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS) earlier this week. "It will advise on the base year for GDP (gross domestic product) and its alignment with other macro-indicators.
The official said that the National Statistical Commission (NSC) is examining the working group report on the roadmap for introducing the PPI and their recommendations are awaited. "It is with Statistical Commission, so we will wait for the panel recommendation," the official, who did not wish to be named, said.
False and acrimonious debates such as Modi versus Manmohan might allow for victories that are political and partisan. But the real loser is the nation, India and Bharat, notes Arvind Subramanian, former chief economic advisor to the Modi government in its first term.
'Revision of the base year for both CPI and GDP are long overdue.' 'The basic data that went into the 2011-2012 series were mainly from surveys done in 2011 or earlier.' 'We have since seen the emergence of new sectors like platform-based work and online marketing.' 'The employment surveys and the consumption surveys need to reflect these adequately.'
Economist Abhijit Sen, a former Planning Commission member and one of the country's foremost experts on rural economy, died on Monday night. He was 72.
As a well-wisher of the Indian Statistical System and part of the system for more than 37 years, Sunil K Sinha, former DG and CEO of NSSO, offers suggestions to improve data quality.
The most important institutions have been and are being undermined with almost no resistance, warns Aakar Patel.
The statement comes in the wake of two independent members of the NSC, P C Mohanan and J V Meenakshi, quitting the Commission over disagreements with the government on the back-series GDP data and delay in release of labour force survey. Mohanan was also the acting chairperson of the Commission.
The findings of the report showed consumer spending falling for the first time in over four decades in 2017-18.
The fiasco over error-ridden national accounts for the first quarter of the financial year has prompted Anant, who used to teach statistics at Delhi School of Economics, to initiate a documentation of processes. Besides, at the behest of the National Statistical Commission, he has ordered an audit of the methodology of preparing the index of industrial production (IIP).
Employment data are currently estimated once in five years through a sample survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation.
Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Viral Acharya is the eighth economist to quit since the Modi government took office.
Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar debunked claims of jobless growth, saying how can a country grow at an average of 7 per cent without employment.
'How low GDP would have been, we don't know.' 'It raises serious questions because so many indicators are pointing to such a sharp decline and GDP estimates are still showing 4 per cent growth.'
The move aimed at blunting Finance Ministry, RBI's opposition to monthly reporting.
Changes the base year and included more sectors.
The problem of unemployment is spread across the economy.
Releasing the survey report after taking into account the expert committee recommendations, Statistics Secretary Pravin Srivastava told reporter, "It is a new design and a new matrix. It would be unfair to compare it with the past. This 45- year high is your interpretation. I don't want to claim that it is 45-year low or high."
There has been criticism of the official statistics ever since MoSPI came out with new methodology to estimate the GDP on the base year of 2011-12 compared to earlier 2004-05.
The revision of the consumer price index and GDP base years from 2011-12 and 2012, respectively, were dependent on the outcomes of the consumer expenditure survey of 2017-18 that the government decided to junk recently.
The government's decision to release the reports comes two days after over 200 scholars from across the globe issued a statement demanding release of all withheld reports produced by the NSO, including the household consumer expenditure survey that was junked.
Data on the new series given by a panel on real sector statistics shows that GDP grew by 10.23 per cent in 2007-08 and 10.78 per cent in 2010-11. There are some years for which the new figures show a deceleration in growth as well. The new series has 2011-12 as the base year while the earlier series had 2004-05 and 1993-94.
The 14-member task-force will develop a working definition of poverty.
Most economists were of the view that the NSSO should release the data, as any move to withhold it will dent the image of country's statistical system.
Experts said a dip in consumption expenditure indicated an increasing prevalence of poverty in the country.
The revision in base year of India's national accounts will increase the size of the economy to Rs 111.7 trillion in FY14, India Ratings (Ind-Ra) said on Wednesday.
India's gross domestic product product (GDP) growth rate between 2011-12 and 2016-17 should be about 4.5 per cent instead of the official estimate of close to 7 per cent, he said in a research paper published at Harvard University. "The Indian policy automobile has been navigated with a faulty, possibly broken, speedometer," he says in the paper.
New body to replace Plan panel might retain 40% of existing staff
Andhra Pradesh posted 8.14% consumer inflation in October.
Recalibrating data of past years using 2011-12 as the base year instead of 2004-05, the Central Statistics Office estimated that India's GDP grew by 8.5% in the financial year 2010-11 and not at 10.3% as previously estimated.
This time there has been a rather peculiar criticism of the latest GDP numbers.
N R Bhanumurthy, professor of economics at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, and the author of the series, presented in a report to the National Statistical Commission, explains to Abhishek Waghmare various aspects of the methodology.
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