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.

 

Composition of the NSC

 

 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 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.

 

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 India Notification No. R-16025/3/2005-NSC dated 3rd July 2006.

 

Qualifications of part-time Chairman and Members of the NSC and the Chief Statistician of India

 

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 India who will be the Secretary to the Commission and also Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Statistics, persons with statistical and managerial experience in a large statistical organisation shall be considered.  The Chief Statistician of India is eligible for re-appointment He/she should have attained the age of 52 years at the time of appointment.

 

 

Tenure of part-time Chairman and Members of the NSC and the Chief Statistician of India

 

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 India will be five years or till he/she attains the age of sixty two years, whichever is earlier. 

 

Manner of selection of part-time Chairman and Members of the NSC and the Chief Statistician of India

 

The Chairman, Members and Chief Statistician of India will be selected on the basis of the recommendations of a Search Committee duly constituted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation for the purpose. 

 

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 India.  The Government of India shall nominate one member from each of the categories and one person as the Chief Statistician of India and appoint them. 

 

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 India

: Member

3.

Prof. K.L. Krishna, Retd. Professor, Delhi School of Economics

: Member

4.

Prof. S.P.Mukherjee, Chairman, Calcutta Statistical Association

: Member

 

Functions of the NSC

 

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: -

 

  • require production of any document which in the opinion of the Commission will serve or may serve statistical purposes;
  • require statistical agencies and institutions to provide details of statistical activities, including concepts and definitions used, methodologies followed, quality standards adopted, sampling and non-sampling errors, etc. in respect of core statistics;
  • require attendance of any person including any public servant on matters connected with core statistics; and
  • issuing notices for examination of witnesses and documents or any matters connected with core statistics.

 

Appointments made so far

 

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.

 

Secretariat of the NSC

 

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.

 

Contacting NSC

 

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, Hyderabad - 500016

 rkrokkam@gmail.com

 

 

At Delhi

011-23747936

 

At Hyderabad

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.

 

sbery@ncaer.org

 

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

gore_anil@yahoo.com

 

goreanil@gmail.com

020-66040135 (O)

94235 33339 (M)

Prof. Shibdas Bandyopadhyay 

Professor of Statistics

Applied Statistics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203, B.T Road, Kolkata–700 108

Shibdas@isical.ac.in

033-25752812 (O)

033-23218056 (R)

 

Dr. Sudipto Mundle

C-380, Defence Colony, New Delhi -110024

sudipto.mundle@gmail.com

011-26569303 (O)

011-24331858 (R)

9871120288

 

 

 

 

Ex-officio Member

Secretary, Planning Commission,

Yojana Bhawan,

New Delhi - 110001

secypc@nic.in 

011-23096574(O)

011-23096575 (Fax)

 

Dr. Pronab Sen

 

Chief Statistician of India and Secretary 418, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Sansad Marg

New Delhi – 110001

 

secpi@nic.com

pronab@nic.in

 

 

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,

New Delhi – 110001

mvsr.nadham@nic.in
 

 

011-23367128 (O)

011-23367128 (Fax)

011-26265452(R)

M-9818878155

 

  Vacant

Director, NSC Secretariat

206, Sardar Patel Bhawan, Sansad Marg,

New Delhi – 110001

  

011-23367127(O)