Problems with web portal for collecting industrial data

MosPI had overestimated January 2012 IIP data, at a 6.8% growth against the actual 1.1%

There are problems with alternative ways of collecting data for the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), according to the Samitra Chaudhuri panel looking into the issue of collecting data and others involved.

The ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MosPI) was considering doing so to avoid instances such as the misreporting which needed a massive correction in factory output figures in January 2012. Ir relies on other ministries for the information and was mulling doing it themselves.

One suggestion was a web portal; it could directly ask a primary source to put the data on the portal.

The Chaudhuri panel says a back-up system would be needed. Connectivity was a major problem in some places, Chaudhuri observed to Business Standard. Also, cross-checking would be more complicated, an official said.

MosPI had overestimated January 2012 IIP data, at a 6.8 per cent growth against the actual 1.1 per cent. The sugar directorate had mistakenly provided three months of output data, instead of a single month's.

According to MoSPI officials, even if mistakes are corrected, sometimes they cannot do much because it is too close to the release of data, on the 12th of every month. The departments concerned often do not send MoSPI data by the 31st of the previous month, the stated deadline. Hence the idea of a web-based portal for collection, as with the Consumer Price Index data.

"We might select a large sample of 5,000-6,000 factories and ask them to put their monthly data on the portal," a MoSPI official had said. This way, we would not be dependent on external sources for the data, he had added.

At present, IIP data is collected through 16 government sources. Half the data comes from the department of industrial policy and promotion and the rest through others. The data comes as a by-product to MoSPI, as ministries usually collect data on a regular basis for policy making, the official said.

But carrying out independent data collection would require additional infrastructure and a bigger team to process it. "Each item will have to be checked, compared with the previous months, which will need a bigger team," an official said. To process the CPI data, collected directly by the National Sample Survey Office and India Post, there is a team of 15 people. While only two people at MoSPI process the IIP data.