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A Parliamentary panel on Tuesday stressed the need for a strong, independent National Statistical Commission (NSC) with statutory authority to ensure credibility of official statistics. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, in its 27th Report on Performance review of NSC' pertaining to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, noted that discrepancies between official and private data undermine trust due to a lack of uniform standards. The panel has recommended empowering the NSC as the nodal body to prescribe methodologies, harmonise data practices, and involve private agencies and experts through a permanent technical committee. Suggesting a provision of statutory authority to NSC and empowering it as the nodal national body for statistics, it said, "The Committee stressed the need for a strong, independent National Statistical Commission (NSC) with statutory authority to ensure credibility of official statistics." The ..
Underscoring the ramifications that data gaps have a cascading effect on the economy, the Karnataka High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a company that did not provide statistics of its operations for the year 2011. Action had been initiated against M/s Masturlal Pvt Ltd, which manufactures technical units of textiles used in industries, under the Collection of Statistics Act in 2015. The company approached the HC in 2022 against it. In a recent judgement, Justice M Nagaprasanna said any negligence on the part of any company will undoubtedly have a spiralling effect on the economic policies of the nation, which is the driving force of any nation among others. On the significance of the data collection, the HC said: "It is in public domain that Indian statistical system is one of the best systems in the world. The country participates in all the international and regional organisations of the United National Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific on statistic