Focus on bringing out district-level estimates: Amitabh Kant to MoSPI

The Statistics ministry should focus more on bringing out district-level estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) and other socio- economic indicators as it can drive comprehensive improvements in socio-economic outcomes, said Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa on Friday.   

 

“While rich data is generated at the state-level through NSS (National Sample Survey), we must now shift our focus to districts. My own experience with the aspirational districts programme showed us that data at the district level could drive comprehensive improvements in socio-economic indicators, whether it is district level GDP data or any other socio-economic indicator data,” he said.

 

Speaking at an event organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to mark 75 years of National Sample Survey, Kant also highlighted the pivotal role that the organisation has played in policy formulation over these years.

 

 

Addressing the event, MoSPI secretary Saurabh Garg also emphasised on the work being done by the ministry on making district-level estimates available.

 

“Sample designs have been modified to make district-level estimates available. State policies can benefit much more from survey data that is being used,” Garg highlighted.

 

Besides, he also said that the monthly figures for unemployment rate for urban areas and rural areas will be made available from April onwards.

 

“While the ministry has been collecting data since January, the data will be released after studying the results of the January-March quarter,” he said.

 

The government till now has been releasing quarterly statistics on unemployment for urban areas and annual statistics for rural areas.

 

The ministry has also been working to release the results of the Time Use Survey, which gauges the amount of time spent on household work and is instrumental in determining the time spent by women in unpaid household work.

 

Also speaking at the event, MoSPI minister Rao Inderjit Singh said that the ministry is actively working to reduce time lags in survey releases and leverage big data, machine learning to foster transparency and inclusivity.