Background of the National Statistical Commission

 

A Commission set up by the Government in January 2000 under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan reviewed the statistical system and the entire gamut of Official Statistics in the country. One of the key recommendations of this Commission was to establish a permanent National Commission on Statistics to serve as a nodal and empowered body for all core statistical activities of the country, evolve, monitor and enforce statistical priorities and standards and to ensure statistical co-ordination among the different agencies involved. The Rangarajan Commission also recommended that the Commission be set up initially through a Government order.  In line with the above recommendations, the Government of India ordered the setting up of a permanent National Statistical Commission (NSC) vide Government Resolution No. A-11011/1/2005-Ad.I on 1^st June 2005. The present NSC is expected to become a statutory commission within a year of its assuming charge.

Constitution of NSC

 

 

1.                 A part-time Chairperson who will be an eminent statistician or social scientist

2.                 Four part-time Members, one each from the following fields of specialization and experience in:

 

(i)                economic statistics in such areas as agriculture, industry, infrastructure, trade or finance,

(ii)              social and environment statistics in such areas as population, health, education, labour and employment or environment,

(iii)            statistical operations in such  areas as censuses, surveys, statistical information system or information technology, and

(iv)            national accounts, statistical modeling or State Statistical Systems.

 

3.          The Secretary, Planning Commission as ex-officio Member.

 

4.          The Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to function as ex-officio Member Secretary of the Commission till the Chief Statistician of India  assumes  office.   The Chief Statistician of India, the post created specifically as the Head of the National Statistical Office will be the Secretary of the Statutory Commission.

 

 

 

Functions

 

The NSC will perform the following functions

 

(a)              to identify the core statistics, which are of national importance and are critical to the development of the economy;

(b)             to constitute professional committees or working groups to assist the Commission on various technical issues;

(c)             to evolve national policies and priorities relating to the statistical system;

(d)             to evolve standard statistical concepts, definitions, classifications and methodologies in different areas in statistics and lay down national quality standards on core statistics;

(e)              to evolve national strategies for the collection, tabulation and dissemination of core statistics, including the release calendar for various data sets;

(f)               to evolve national strategies for human resource development on official statistics including information technology and communication needs of the statistical system;

(g)             to evolve measures for improving public trust in official statistics;

(h)             to evolve measures for effective co-ordination with State Governments and Union Territory Administrations on statistical activities including strengthening of existing institutional mechanisms;

(i)                to exercise statistical co-ordination between Ministries, Departments and other agencies of the Central Government;

(j)                to exercise statistical audit over the statistical activities to ensure quality and integrity of the statistical products;

(k)             to recommend to the Central Government, or any State Government, as the case may be, measures to effectively implement the standards, strategies and other measures evolved under clauses (c) to (h);

(l)                to advise the Government on the requirement of legislative measures on statistical matters including the statute for the National Statistical Commission;

(m)           to monitor and review the functioning of the statistical system in the light of the laid down policies, standards and methodologies and recommend measures for enhanced performance.

 

 

Chairman and Members

 

The National Statistical Commission assumed charge on 12^th July 2006.

 

 

Chairman: Prof. Suresh Tendulkar, born in February 1939 did his Masters in Economic Statistics from Delhi School of Economics and took his PhD from Harvard University as a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar. Prof. Tendulkar has taught and researched at Indian Statistical institute, Delhi and since 1978 at Delhi School of Economics. He is a noted economist with deep knowledge of the Indian Statistical System. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Sample Survey Organization and Member of the Centre of Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics. Prof. Tendulkar has extensively written on, developmental issues like poverty, planning and has served in a large number of Committees and Technical Groups including the Fifth Pay Commission.

 

Members

 

Dr. Surjit S Bhalla received his PhD from Princeton University in 1976. He is currently heading the Oxus Investments Pvt. Ltd. He joined the World bank after a brief stint with Rand Corporation and Brookings Institution. He was Executive Director of the Policy group in New Delhi. Later he worked with Goldman Sachs, New York and Deutsche Bank. He has written several books and articles on Globalization, Poverty, Economic Development, Capital Markets etc.

 

Prof. Amitabh Kundu did his Masters degree in Economics from Saugar University. He took his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University and did post-doctoral research as a Fulbright Scholar at Pennsylvania University, USA.  He is currently Professor of Economics at the Center for the Study of Regional Development and Dean, School// of Social sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has taught in India and abroad and has been the Director of Gujarat Institute of Development Research. He is closely associated with various NSSO surveys.  His research interest includes Regional Development, Urbanization and Development Economics.

 

Prof. Bikas Sinha graduated in Statistics from Calcutta University. He did his PhD from Calcutta University in 1967 and is now Senior Professor of Statistics in the Division of Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.  He is the author of a large number of research papers in theoretical statistics and visiting Professor at the University of Illinois.

 

Dr. Padam Singh did his PhD from Delhi University in Statistics. He is an internationally known expert in statistical sampling. He taught at Indian Agricultural Statistical Institute before joining the Planning Commission, as Joint Advisor in 1979.He was Director of Institute for Research in Medical Statistics from 1987 to 1998. From 1998 to 2004 he was the Additional Director General of Indian Council for Medical research. He has published a large number of research papers in the field of sampling and health related issues. He is currently heading Research and Evaluation at EPOS Health (India).

 

 

Dr Pronab Sen assumed charge as Chief Statistician of India and Secretary to the Commission on 21^st February 2007. Prior to this appointment, he was Principal Adviser in the Planning Commission and heading the Perspective Planning Division and the Statistics and Surveys Division. He did his Masters degree from George Washington University and PhD from John Hopkins University, USA. Dr Sen has wide experience in Government and International Organisations and his specialisation include Development Economics, Public Finance and Open Economy Macro-Systems.

 

 

Secretariat

 

The Secretariat is currently located at Sardar Patel Bhawan, Parliament Street, New Delhi

 

Secretariat is headed by P C Mohanan, Deputy Director General

and M V S Ranganadham is the Director.