New Standing Committee on Statistics holds its first meet

As per a government release from 2019, the National Statistical Office (NSO) had proposed to conduct the first round of the Annual Survey on Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) during October 2019-March 2020 and next round of ASUSE in April 2020 till March 2021.

Former Chief Statistician and former Chairman of the National Statistical Commission Pronab Sen

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The newly-formed Standing Committee on Statistics held its first meeting Saturday and discussed the yet-to-be released results of the Annual Survey of Industries and Annual Survey of Unincorporated Enterprises in detail. The committee, chaired by former Chief Statistician and former Chairman of the National Statistical Commission Pronab Sen, was constituted on July 13.

“The discussions were mainly around the Annual Survey of Industries 2020-21 because the results are to be released soon. There was also discussion on the results of the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Enterprises 2021, which has been pending for a long time even though it is ready. The first quarter results for it are showing a dip and then it bounces back up in subsequent quarters, so we are looking into it. These two surveys were discussed in detail,” a committee member, who did not wish to be named, told The Indian Express.

The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), which covers all factories registered under the Factories Act across the country, is considered as an important source of industrial statistics of the registered organised manufacturing sector of the economy. The survey results for 2020-21 are expected to be released next week.

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As per a government release from 2019, the National Statistical Office (NSO) had proposed to conduct the first round of the Annual Survey on Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) during October 2019-March 2020 and next round of ASUSE in April 2020 till March 2021.

In October last year, it launched another round of ASUSE (October 2022-September 2023) which will cover economic and operational characteristics of unincorporated non-agricultural enterprises in manufacturing, trade and other services sectors. These survey results are yet to be made public.

The unincorporated sector is seen as important because of the large number of establishments in this sector and the magnitude of employment it provides to unskilled/ semi-skilled/ skilled persons along with its significant contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of the country.

On July 13, the government renamed and expanded the scope of coverage of the Standing Committee on Economic Statistics (SCES) formed in December 2019 as Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS).

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The terms of reference (ToR) of the committee are “to review the extant framework and to address the issues raised from time to time on the subject/ results/ methodology, etc. related to all surveys as brought before the SCoS by MoSPI; to advise on survey methodology including sampling frame, sampling design, survey instruments, etc. and to finalise tabulation plan of surveys; finalisation of survey results”.

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The SCoS has 14 members, out of which there are four non-official members, nine official members and a member secretary.

The new committee has been formed at a time when India’s statistical system has come under criticism, especially from three members of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM) including Chairman Bibek Debroy and members Shamika Ravi and Sanjeev Sanyal.

Aanchal Magazine

Aanchal Magazine is Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express and reports on the macro economy and fiscal policy, with a special focus on economic science, labour trends, taxation and revenue metrics. With over 13 years of newsroom experience, she has also reported in detail on macroeconomic data such as trends and policy actions related to inflation, GDP growth and fiscal arithmetic. Interested in the history of her homeland, Kashmir, she likes to read about its culture and tradition in her spare time, along with trying to map the journeys of displacement from there. ... Read More

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