Not in favour of scrapping consumer survey report: NSC's Bimal Kumar Roy

The government's concern is that the estimate does not look realistic. We are trying to examine the issues, says Bimal Kumar Roy

Cryptologist Bimal Kumar Roy, former director of Kolkata-based Indian Statistical Institute, took charge as chairman of the National Statistical Commission (NSC) at a time when questions were raised over the autonomy of statistical institutions. In his first interview after being appointed NSC chief, Roy speaks to Somesh Jha on the recent controversy over the government’s decision to scrap the consumer expenditure survey. Edited excerpts:

The government recently decided to junk the consumer expenditure survey of 2017-18. What do you have to say?

We are not in favour of scrapping the survey report. We are exploring possibilities in terms of adding certain caveats