BS Number Wise: Why public data needs to be accessible, free and reliable

Year 2021 was when many people put off or could not meet their targets because of pandemic disruptions. Like individuals, the government and institutions, too, slipped on targets, vaccination being one of them. In May 2021, then Union minister Prakash Javadekar had said India would vaccinate everyone by December 2021.

Today, however, 10 per cent of adults are yet to get their first dose of the vaccine and 37 per cent are waiting for the second. In all, the country still needs to administer 450 million doses to fully vaccinate all adults (with two doses). Preventive third shots for healthcare and frontline workers, citizens above 60 with comorbidities and first shots for teenagers would raise the requirement by another 250 million.
 
One could argue that Covid presented unprecedented challenges, and the vaccination drive was carried out amidst these. But there are other targets, too, that remain unmet.
 
For instance, in 2015, the Narendra Modi government committed to install 175 gigawatts of grid-connected renewable power by 2022 — up from the 100 GW target set by the Manmohan Singh government. So far, however, only 60 per cent of the target has been met, with the renewables capacity at 104 GW.

In 2017, the Modi government had also promised it would double farmers’ incomes within five years, or roughly by 2022. There is no clarity on how close India is to achieving this target. The report on Situational Assessment of Agricultural Households from the National Sample Survey Office shows a 60 per cent jump in nominal monthly income in six years (2013 to 2019). No accurate data is available on farmers’ incomes in 2021.
 
Clear numbers, in fact, remain elusive in many areas. And these limitations are not restricted to sectoral data, but also exist at the macro level, in the formulation of the size of the economy.
 
Calculating India’s gross domestic product (GDP) is a complex exercise, requiring information about the consumption patterns in the economy. India’s official statisticians compute the patterns once every five-six years, and GDP formulation is then recalibrated, or as economists say, re-based.
 
After 2011-12, there has been no consumer expenditure survey. There was one in 2017-18, but it was junked. So, GDP is being computed based on reference data that dates back a decade, raising questions about its quality.

 
Structured data is missing in many areas. India’s central and state governments do not provide a historical time series of confirmed coronavirus cases. Only key policymakers have access to it.
 
There are also instances where data generation methods come into question. For instance, in September 2021, the World Bank paused its next Doing Business report “after data irregularities on Doing Business 2018 and 2020 were reported internally… and initiated a series of reviews and audits of the report and its methodology”. The Press Information Bureau, the Indian government’s media arm, however, referred to this data a month later to say: “India today ranks 63 in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2020, a meteoric rise of 79 ranks from 142 in 2014.”
 
Another database that has time and again come into question is Aadhaar. Originally meant to allot funds under government welfare schemes, Aadhaar is now mandatory for availing of a variety of non-essential services. And in the recently concluded winter session of Parliament, a law was passed allowing voter IDs and Aadhaar to be linked.
 
Private data makes digital lives efficient; public data helps in societal progress. Data is also the benchmark for citizens to question governments. For all of this, public data should be accessible, free and reliable. Trustworthy data, then, should be a resolution for 2022.