New Delhi: Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar has underscored the need for the revamp and modernisation of the Indian statistical system, so that real-time data is captured and used for policy analysis. The Aayog, Kumar says, is in touch with the World Bank for modernising the statis-tical system. “One thing that I am clear about is that our statistical system needs to be revamped, modernised and get aligned with the statistical system in the world,” he told PTI in an interview. Recently, several experts including former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, had expressed doubts over India’s revised economic growth data.
Both Rajan and Subramanian had said that the current cloud over the GDP numbers must be cleared by appointing an impartial body to look at the data. “And there is a World Bank team which recently visited me; they are actively looking into what steps are to be taken for modernising our statistical system so that we can move increasingly to real-time data based statistical system and policy analysis,” Kumar added.
His comments come at a time when the Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) has decided to merge the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) into National Statistical Office (NSO). The ministry has said the union of the CSO and the NSSO within NSO, as part of the main ministry, would streamline and strengthen the official statistics system and bring in more synergy. Asked whether the government would be able to privatise some sick public sector units (PSUs) this fiscal, Kumar said, “Yes, you can expect serious action this fiscal on raising non-tax revenues, including disinvestment.”
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the think-tank to look into the viability of disinvestment of state-run companies and the Aayog has already recommended strategic divestment of 34 sick PSUs and national carrier Air India. The government has set a disinvestment target of Rs 90,000 crore for 2019-20.
