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The Centre has decided to encourage Research in Applied Statistics and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is evolving schemes for the same. The urge to excel in any branch of Science drives basic research. While basic research is essential to the development of Science, it has to be complemented by Applied research to reap the benefits of new developments. The Ministry’s endeavour will be to demonstrate how the application of the state-of-the-art statistical techniques can be simplified for a tremendous effect on the quality and reliability of statistical analysis.
The Ministry feels that there is also a need to evolve methodologies for developing short-term indicators on the performance of social and economic activities of the country both at the national and sub-national level. Areas like environmental statistics need immediate attention. The National Accounts Statistics need to be adjusted for environmental costs. Hence, the focus of applied research will be on optimizing the sample-size and reducing the respondent burden in our surveys. These views emerged at the just concluded 112th birth anniversary celebrations of Prof.P.C.Mahalanobis, here.
A Software package “DEV-INFO” released to mark the occasion will go a long way in creating greater situation awareness and knowledge of the country among a wide range of stakeholders in different areas. It will also contribute to more evidence-based policy making, using quality data for achieving development goals.
The Software supports upto 10 levels of geographical coverage and has a mapping component as well as maps till block level of India. Besidese, being a repository of data, DEV-INFO provides easy to use facilities for querying the data base and based on the data retrieved for producing graphics and their inclusion in reports and presentations. The package contains nearly 300 social indicators with different sub-population and units for various geographical levels. It was described as a powerful advocacy tool.
VKS/SR
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