MoSPI, UN collaborate to harness potential of data for development

Taking heed of the importance of outcome-based monitoring to track progress on national priorities and the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and the United Nations in India announced their collaboration to leverage technology for evidence-based decision-making.

Speaking at a seminar on Leveraging Technology for Evidence Based Decision Making in the capital on Saturday, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Vijay Goel, noted that, "Merging new technologies with data and statistics is essential for better and more informed policymaking at the central and state level of governance."

In order to monitor progress on the SDGs, MoSPI and the UN are partnering on the SDG Dashboard for India, which aims to bring together data from various datasets, portals and sectors onto one common platform. In addition, the two entities are engaged in setting up the Data for Development Coordination Committee, which will bring together UN agencies and MoSPI, enabling stakeholders to share experiences and expertise around SDG monitoring.

"Technology has made the traditional task of collecting, processing and disseminating easier but it has also ended the monopoly of statisticians as supplier of statistics. Today, everyone from school students to senior citizens can not only access and process data but is also a generator of data. This has created a challenge for official statistician. They need to focus not just on their tradition concerned and approaches but to engage with these newer participants of data users, data managers and data scientists in the data dialogue," said T.C.A Anant, Secretary MoSPI.

Participants identified emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, big data and blockchain as those with great potential for applications in development.