Release interim data on 7th Economic Census, House panel tells MoSPI

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has urged the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to ‘salvage some useful data’ from the fieldwork of the 7th Economic Census and come up with interim data.

 

In its latest report submitted to Parliament, the committee notes that the gap between the previous 6th Economic Census, done in 2013, and the proposed 8th Economic Census is slated to be over 12 years. This, it said, indicates a ‘large void of data.’

 

“The committee, therefore, urges the ministry to salvage some useful data collected during the fieldwork for the 7th Economic Census and at least come out with some interim data for this period to partly justify the expenditure incurred on the survey,” the report notes. 

 

Data collection for the 7th Economic Census began in 2019 and took two years to complete owing to Covid. West Bengal did not participate in the process despite communication from the Union government.

 

In December 2023, statistics minister Rao Inderjit Singh informed Parliament that 12 states/union territories (UTs) have not approved the provisional results of the 7th Economic Census. It is pending in 10 states/UTs for approval.

 

“Therefore, the nationwide 7th Economic Census results could not be finalised,” the minister said. 

 

The committee further noted that the total outlay of the 7th Economic Census was ₹913 crore of which ₹691.04 crore has been utilised.

 

The report said, “The committee feels that even after spending such a huge sum, the purpose of the whole exercise was defeated. This is a sad state of affairs.”

 

In response to a query by the House panel on measures being taken to not repeat the fate of the 7th Economic Census, the ministry said that the model of engagement of the third party for conduct of field work did not work out according to expectations, as the role of states / UTs was minimal.

 

“There will be complete ownership of states/UTs in the engagement of enumerators for data collection and deployment of supervisors (in 8th Economic Census). Also, the timeline for field work has been increased from three months in the 7th Economic Census to nine months in the 8th Economic Census. It is to enable states / UTs to get sufficient time to conduct field work,” the ministry said. 

 

The Economic Census provides disaggregated information on operational and structural variables such as geographical spread/clusters of economic activities, ownership pattern, and persons engaged in all establishments in the country.

 

The information collected through census is then used for socio-economic developmental planning at the state and district levels. 

 

The government released the 6th Economic Census results in 2016, based on data collected between 2013 and 14. The census showed that there were nearly 60 million establishments in the country employing 131 million people.