Never faced govt pressure on job data, until recently, says ex-NSC head

The withholding of a jobs report and the lack of enough statisticians were taking a toll on the institution, said P C Mohanan

Government interference is undermining the integrity of India’s statistics apparatus, a former head of the country’s apex statistical body said, raising questions about the reliability of data from an economy poised to be the world’s fifth-largest.

P C Mohanan, the former acting head of the National Statistical Commission, said questions raised about the agency’s work by a government think tank, the withholding of a jobs report and the lack of enough statisticians were taking a toll on the institution. He, along with another colleague, resigned in January in protest.

“I had never felt any pressure from the government” until recently,