Digital transactions to power key official macro-economic statistics

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is looking to leverage data generated by digital transactions to arrive at macro-economic figures such as gross domestic product (GDP) or inflation. 

Officials of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) recently held a round table with statisticians from Canada, Australia, the UK and Singapore on the subject.

India’s digital economy is likely to hit Rs 1 trillion by 2022, according to estimates.

Anil Arora, chief statistician of Canada, told Business Standard the discussion was about proliferation of data, in terms of suppliers and producers. “It is a real question about the role of statistics in this data-driven society. The new sources of information available for statisticians, what India can learn from all that’s happening in different parts of the world, and also what the country can contribute,” according to Arora.

Arora said 90 per cent of data in existence was generated in the last two years. “In case of Canada, we are seeing geo-satellites that gives us a lot of information, personal devices like Fitbit and others that provide huge amount of data coming out of electronic service delivery.”

The sheer size of digital devices can help India take a lead in this regard. “India has 400 million smartphones and 600 million other devices that are converting to smartphones. These are powerful numbers,” according to Arora.

On whether these sources of data can be used for macro-economic numbers such as GDP, he said: “Yes. For GDP, we are starting to substitute transitional surveys in Canada with alternative sources of information.”