Montek to head selection panel for NSC chief

The government has appointed a search committee headed by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to find a new chief for the National Statistical Commission (NSC).

Other members of the committee will include a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor and two well-known economists.

Eminent economist Suresh D Tendulkar, who was the first chairman of NSC, retired in February this year and the post is lying vacant since then.

Another member, Padam Singh, former additional director general of the Indian Council for Medical Research, had also quit to contest the coming general elections.

According to a government official, the appointment of the chairman is likely to be decided by the new government as any decision before that would require the Election Commission’s approval.

However, work at the NSC has not been affected as Bikas Sinha, professor of Statistics at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), is being appointed as acting chairman. According to the NSC mandate, the part-time chairman has to be an eminent statistician or social scientist, while the four part-time members have to be chosen from people with expertise in statistics.

The NSC is a government appointed non-executive body that reviews national statistical data and acts as an advisory committee to the Government of India. It was established in July 2006 in accordance with the recommendations of a commission headed by C Rangarajan, the then chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.