Background
of the National Statistical Commission (NSC)
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.
The Rangarajan Commission submitted its report to the Government
in August 2001. 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.
Rangarajan Commission Report
In line with the recommendations of the
Rangarajan Commission, the Government of India ordered the setting up of a
permanent National Statistical Commission (NSC) vide Notification No. 85 dated 1st
June 2005 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary,
Part-III-Section 4.
The
NSC comprises: -
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
Service Conditions
The Service conditions of the
Chairman and Members of the NSC have been laid down in the Government of India Notification No. 465 dated 10th
May 2006 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary,
Part-II-Section 3- Sub-Section (ii).
In accordance with the
procedure laid down, the NSC was constituted for the first time on 12th
July 2006 vide Government of
Qualifications of part-time Chairman and Members
of the NSC and the Chief Statistician of
Chairman
shall be an outstanding statistician or social scientist and a person of
eminence in an academic discipline involving application scientific methods and
significant use of quantitative techniques to contemporary social, statistical
and economic development related subjects.
The chairperson should have attained the age of 55 years at the time of
appointment. Chairperson appointed for
one term is not eligible for re-appointment.
There
will be four part-time members, one each from the following fields having
specialization and experience in -
i.
Economic Statistics in such areas as agriculture,
industry, infrastructure, trade or finance.
ii.
Social & 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
iv.
National accounts, statistical modeling or State
Statistical System.
Members
should have attained the age of 55 years at the time of appointment. Members
appointed for one term are not eligible for re-appointment. However, Members are eligible for appointment
as Chairperson.
For
appointment as Chief Statistician of
Tenure of part-time Chairman and Members of the
NSC and the Chief Statistician of
The
tenure of the Chairperson will be three years or till he/she attains the age of
seventy years, whichever is earlier. The
tenure of all the Part-time Members will be three years or till he/she attains
the age of sixty five years, whichever is earlier.
The
tenure of the Chief Statistician of
Manner of selection of part-time Chairman and
Members of the NSC and the Chief Statistician of
The
Chairman, Members and Chief Statistician of
The
Search Committee shall recommend names of three persons to the Government of
India for selection as Chairperson and one of them would be nominated as the
Chairperson. The Search Committee shall
also recommend the names of two persons from each of the four categories of
fields of specialization and names of two persons for Chief Statistician of
Rank of the Chairman and Members of the NSC
The
Chairperson of the Commission will have the status of a Minister of State in
the Government and the Members will have the status of a Secretary to the
Government.
Temporary arrangements in the position of Chairman.
If the
office of the Chairperson becomes vacant or if the Chairperson is for any
reason absent or unable to discharge the duties of his office, those duties
shall, until the new chairperson assumes office or the existing chairpersons
resumes his office, as the case may be, be discharged by such other member as
the government may direct.
Resignation, Removal etc. of a Chairperson or a
Member
The
Chairperson and any other member, may, by notice in writing under his hand address
to the President, resign his post.
Notwithstanding this, the President may by order remove from office the
Chairperson or a Member if he/she
a) Is adjudged an insolvent or
b) Gets convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for
an offence which in the opinion of the President involves moral turpitude or
c) Is, in the opinion of the President, unfit to
continue in office by reason of infirmity of mind or body or
d) If in the opinion of the President has so abused
his/her position has to render that persons continuance in office detrimental
to the interest of the statistical system, or
e) Becomes an un-discharged solvent and
f) Refuses to act or becomes incapable of acting.
Provided that the Chairperson/Member shall not be
removed until he/she has been given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in
the matter.
The
Chairperson or a Member shall only be removed from his office by order of the
President on the ground of misbehavior after the Supreme Court, on reference
being made to it by the President, has on enquiry held in accordance with due
procedure, reported that the Chairperson/Member ought to be removed on any such
ground. The President may suspend from
Office the Chairperson or a Member in respect of whom a reference has been made
through the Supreme Court until the President has passed order on receipt of
the Report of the Supreme Court on such reference.
Composition of the present Search Committee
The
Search Committee consists of -
|
1. |
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission |
: Chairman |
|
2. |
Dy. Governor, Reserve Bank of |
: Member |
|
3. |
Prof.
K.L. Krishna, Retd. Professor, |
: Member |
|
4. |
Prof. S.P.Mukherjee, Chairman, |
: Member |
The NSC
is mandated to perform the following functions, namely: -
(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; and
(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.
Powers
of the NSC
The Commission has the
requisite autonomy to discharge its functions effectively and efficiently. In
particular, the Commission has the powers to: -
Following the due
procedure, the Government of India appointed the NSC on 12th July
2006 with Prof. Suresh D.Tendulkar as part-time Chairman, Prof. Surjit
Bhalla, Prof. Bikas Sinha, Prof. Amitabh Kundu and Dr. Padam Singh as part-time
Members and Secretary, Planning Commission as the ex-officio Member. Dr. Padam
Singh resigned and the part-time Chairman and rest of the part-time Members
have completed their tenure. The positions were filled again.
Part-time Chairman and Members at present
Prof. R. Radhakrishna Chairman w.e.f 30th
July 2009
Shri Suman K. Bery Member w.e.f 24th
December 2009
Prof. Anil P. Gore Member w.e.f 30th
Dec 2009
Prof. Shibdas Bandyopadhyay Member w.e.f 30th
December 2009
Dr. Sudipto Mundle Member w.e.f 24th December
2009
Dr. Pronab Sen was
appointed as the Chief Statistician of India (CSI) w.e.f 21st
February 2007 for a period of three years. The CSI is the Secretary to the
Commission. He has a dual role, as he is also the Secretary to the Government
of India in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).
Office of the NSC
The NSC is located at II
Floor, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Parliament Street, New Delhi 110 001.
In order to support the
Secretary to the Commission in providing assistance to the Commission in the
discharge of its functions, a small secretariat comprising a Dy. Director
General and a Director with other support staff has been created.
All
correspondence to the NSC Secretariat may be addressed to: nsc-secretariat@nic.in
Contact
details of Chairman, Members and Other Officers of NSC
|
Name |
Address |
E-mail address |
Telephone |
|
Prof. R. Radhakrishna |
Centre
for Economic and Social Studies, Nizamiah Observatory Campus, Begumpet, |
|
At 011-23747936 At 040-23406808 040-23742655 9951081275 (M) |
|
Shri Suman K. Bery |
Director General, National
Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Parisila Bhawan, 11,
Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi 110 002. |
|
011-23370466 011-23370164 (Fax) 9810349677 (Mob) |
|
Prof. Anil P. Gore
|
Cytel Statistical Software and
Services Pvt. Ltd., 8th Floor, Siddharth Towers, Off Karve Road,
Kothrud, Pune - 411029 |
|
020-66040135 (O) 94235 33339 (M) |
|
Prof. Shibdas Bandyopadhyay |
Professor of Statistics Applied Statistics Unit,
Indian Statistical Institute, 203, |
033-25752812 (O) 033-23218056 (R) |
|
|
Dr. Sudipto Mundle |
C-380, Defence Colony, |
011-26569303 (O) 011-24331858 (R) 9871120288 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ex-officio Member |
Secretary, Planning
Commission, Yojana Bhawan, |
011-23096574(O) 011-23096575 (Fax) |
|
|
Dr. Pronab Sen |
Chief Statistician of |
|
011-23742150(O) 011-23742067(Fax) 011-26145861(R) M-9811297371 |
|
M. V. S. Ranganadham |
Dy. Director General, NSC
Secretariat 206, Sardar Patel Bhawan,
Sansad Marg, |
|
011-23367128 (O) 011-23367128 (Fax) 011-26265452(R) M-9818878155 |
|
Vacant |
Director, NSC Secretariat 206, Sardar Patel Bhawan,
Sansad Marg, |
|
011-23367127(O) |