Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation

Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation is a ministry of Government of India concerned with coverage and quality aspects of statistics released. It was formed on 15th of October, 1999, when Department of Statistics and the Department of Program Implementation merged. It is responsible to covering statistics released in the country.

Rao Inderjit Singh, the current cabinet minister heading the ministry, hails from Harayana, started his political career in Congress, and in 2014, he got elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from the ticket of Bhartiya Janta Party.

Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation has two wings, one      relating to Statistics and the other- Program Implementation. The Statistics Wing called the National Statistical Office (NSO) consists of the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the Computer Center and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).CSO coordinates the statistical activities in the country and also evolves statistical standards. NSSO is responsible for conduct of large scale sample surveys in diverse fields on an all India basis.

The Programme Implementation Wing has three Divisions, namely, (i) Twenty Point Programme (ii) Infrastructure Monitoring and Project Monitoring and (iii) Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.Besides these two wings, there is National Statistical Commission created through a resolution of the Government of India (MOSPI) and one autonomous Institute, i.e., Indian Statistical Institute declared as an institute of national importance by an act of the Parliament.

On 23rd May, 2019, during the tenure of D. V. Sadananda Gowda, Government decided to merge  the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and National Sample Survey Office(NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) into a single entity. The new merged entity has been named the National Statistical Office (NSO). The MOSPI secretary would head NSO and three director generals would assist him.

Why was this merge proposed?

In 2000, a committee headed by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor C. Rangarajan suggested the establishment of NSO as the nodal body for all core statistical activities. It would have worked under the National Statistical Commission (NSC), which was to be answerable to Parliament, not the government. The intent was to clean up collection and calculation of data. NSC was set up in June 2005, but didn’t have a constitutional role. It was given administrative powers over one arm of the statistical system, NSSO. The idea of an NSO that would include NSSO and CSO was not affected. The merger of CSO and NSSO, an entity separate from MOSPI, will take away the latter’s autonomy.  The order clearly puts the merged entity under MOSPI secretary, raising questions about the independence of the process through which official survey data is collected and published.

The order stated that the proposed NSO would be headed by Secretary (Statistics and Programme Implementation), but skipped any mention of National Statistical Commission (NSC), which had been the overseeing body for all the statistical work done in the country. NSC oversees all technical aspects of the statistical work–which survey needs to be done, when and how it needs to be done.

The government stated that the order for restructuring the Indian official statistics system had been issued in order to streamline and strengthen the present nodal functions of the ministry and to bring in more synergy by integrating its administrative functions within the ministry.

The Narendra Modi government has been accused of fudging growth numbers and tinkering with jobs data that would have shown it in poor light. Some believe of merging has possibly affected country’s growth trajectory and economic potential. Two NSC members resigned because they felt NSSO was delaying the release of a jobs report at the behest of MOSPI, though NSC had cleared it. NSC has been fighting battles over resources and turf. Economists claim that in a major statistical system overhaul, this merger could’ve been avoided. The Rangarajan committee had also recommended setting up of the NSC, headed by a person with a Minister of State-level designation, to serve as a nodal and empowered body for all core statistical activities of the country.

In one of it’s surveys, National Statistical Office (NSO), stated that more than one-fourth of rural households lacked access to toilets. The survey found that only 71% of village homes had the facility, while the government’s figure for the same period stood at 95%.

But even if the actual figure is closer to 71% than 95%, it would mark a big leap from the 40% self-reported number recorded by the survey in 2012. The government’s Swachh Bharat Mission has clearly made a difference. Most Indians now have toilets they could routinely use. However, reaching 100% may yet prove difficult. This is because the mere construction of toilets does not mean they are in use. Habits are slow to change, especially among people of rural India, not everyone is convinced that toilets are better for general hygiene than open defecation. Also, a toilet requires plentiful quantities of water for flushing, and water scarcity acts as a usage barrier in some places.