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The Centre has asked the State Governments to review the functioning of their Directorates of Economics and Statistics and take measures for strengthening them. The State Chief Secretaries have been specifically asked to pay personal attention and intervention in this regard. Chairing a Meeting of the Chief Secretaries, the Cabinet Secretary Shri B.K.Chaturvedi underscored the need to strengthen the State Statistical Systems so as to have a credible, modern National Statistical System for the country. The Chief Secretaries meeting formed part of the National Conference of Central and State Statistical Organisations that concluded here yesterday.
Underlining the inadequacies in the system, the Cabinet Secretary said that data particularly pertaining to Health, Education, Agriculture and Birth/Death register, have certain shortcomings that cast a shadow on their credibility. Such inaccuracies cannot sustain in the world of globalised economies. This, all the more necessitates, having a National Statistical System with high credibility and accuracy. A sound statistical system, is highly important for policy, planning and administration, Shri Chaturvedi said.
He pointed out that even in the independent India, our first Prime Minister Pt.Jawahar Lal Nehru introduced planning and paved the way for a structured Statistical System for the country under the Chairmanship of Prof. P.C.Mahalanobis. Infact, India built much early an elaborate Statistical System to capture a wide variety of data on its large and decentralised economy. But in the recent past, Indian Statistical System did not keep pace with the demands of development, planning and its process. With the data requirements having grown considerably, particularly for micro level planning, the State Statistical Systems beset with a multitude of problems, need to be revamped, he added.
The Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Oscar Fernandes, who earlier opened the Chief Secretaries Meeting, disclosed that a study of Statistical System in each State is being launched shortly to identify the specific requirements of their Directorates of Economics and Statistics. The Report of the World Bank supported study will form the basis for revamping the Indian Statistical Network. Systems will also be set up to link all the government and Central Departments, the States and their set ups to gather data, the Minister said.
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