Inaugural Address by Minister of External Affairs & Finance Hon’ble Pranab Mukherjee, at the dedication of National Academy of Statistical Administration (NASA)

13th February, 2009

Shri G. K. Vasan, Hon’ble Minister of State for Statistics & Programme Implementation
Shri Oscar Fernandes, Minister of State for Labour and Employment
Dr. C Rangarajan, Member of Parliament;
Prof. S. Tendulkar, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council and Chairman of the National Statistical Commission;
Dr. Pronab Sen, Chief Statistician of India and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation;
Shri S. K. Das, DG, CSO;

Officers and Dignitaries;

Ladies and Gentlemen

At the outset, let me express my gratitude for giving me the privilege to dedicate the National Academy of Statistical Administration (NASA) to the Nation. This institution will be responsible for imparting training and undertaking research in official Statistics, an objective, so important and critical to the improvement of the vital statistical system in the country.

India has a long history of evolution of statistics, not only as a pure science but also as an applied science. The history dates back to Kautilya’s Arthasastra, one of the oldest treatises on economics, referencing to system of census and data collection way back in 4th century BC. Its evolution went on with vigour and in its march, contributed significantly to the development of India’s post independence development and planning processes. As I stand here, on this occasion of dedicating NASA to the nation, it would be in fitness to remember the great statisticians which this country has produced. Foremost among them is perhaps Prof P C Mahalanobis.

Statistics is all about measurement. At this juncture, when the country is taking rapid strides towards economic development, need for a reliable statistical system to measure its impact on the millions cannot be over emphasized. It is well known that which cannot be measured cannot be managed well. The size of our country, its economy and the complex socio-economic diversities make all activities relating to measurement a daunting task; and also an expensive exercise. It is in this context that the national and the sub-national statistical systems use a judicious mix of administrative data, censuses and nation wide sample surveys, the three components of the statistical system, to evaluate the progress of the country vis-à-vis the goals. The last one in particular – the regular and periodical National Sample Surveys – was an Indian innovation, pioneered by the architect of the existing statistical system in the country, Professor P C Mahalanobis. The beginning made by Prof Mahalanobis, continues to produce reliable national aggregates in a cost effective way, facilitating national planning.

The official statistics provide crucial indicators of the society’s overall socio-economic development and hence it acts as an important instrument of measuring good governance. Official Statistics is certainly a powerful tool which empowers the common man, to participate in public scrutiny and debate on the functioning of the governments and facilitates in taking decisions about its success and failures. He uses this to translate his right of choice into a vote - democratic process to which we all are committed to. As it is said, statistics is an estimation of truth, within the specified limits of uncertainty. Thus, it is our responsibility to keep the statistical system strong and vibrant with new techniques and methodologies, strategies, plan and programmes.

Today, almost all over the world, Governments are resorting to evidence based planning for the economic development. In order that planning is successful in meeting its objectives, it must be based on sound analysis of the complex statistical data using appropriate statistical techniques. In these times, administrative statistics is not confined to only the affairs of the State and to the government functionaries. Modern statistical techniques are making way into diversified areas, thereby engaging attention of private sector entities. For this reason it is important to engage ourselves in ensuring credibility of the government statistics, generated from the decentralized statistical system at the national and sub-national level.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

The national economy has been witnessing impressive growth rates and the social sector has been rapidly expanding in all dimensions. During this period, there have been clearly discernible paradigm shifts in the manner in which public policy, schemes and programmes based thereon, have been formulated, implemented, reviewed, monitored and evaluated in India. There are two key dimensions relating to economic and social data that are critical at this juncture. The first relates the degree of aggregation and the second relates to the timeliness.

The recent developments in the global economy underline the importance of ensuring that data on key economic indicators are made available in a timely manner at varying levels of disaggregation. This calls for rethink on the strategy for data collection, compilation and its dissemination that is useful to policy makers so that they are able to base their decisions on data and evidence that is current rather than extrapolating from the past. At the same time, valuable information and insights that could be derived from data that is collected often gets irretrievably lost by virtue of aggregation. Timely dissemination of data at greater levels of disaggregation, no doubt, within the bounds of propriety, needs to be explored so that information at a more detailed level may be meaningfully used for policy making, research and also by those responsible for implementing programmes in the field.

The ongoing financial crisis that originated in the US and transmitted to the rest of the World, with amazing swiftness and intensity has highlighted the criticality of ensuring that data on key economic variables are collected, disseminated, interpreted and monitored with greater frequency. This is not only true of financial and monetary variables, but also of variables like savings, consumption, employment, that are conventionally thought to possess huge inertia with respect to change. Time lags in their collection and dissemination lead to unreliable guestimates, approximations and questionable extension of available time series. Such a situation also gives room to anecdotal evidence, incomprehensive sample studies and perhaps incorrect guidance for making mid-course policy corrections.

Therefore, it is important to urgently institute mechanisms to generate statistically acceptable short-frequency data, consistent at different tiers of collection and aggregation, for the regular use of economic administrators. We also need to equip economic administrators to appropriately interpret the data at hand. Addressing these issues necessitates immense efforts at capacity creation, harnessing private abilities and lead roles to be performed by national agencies such as NASA.

Like the federal governance, the National Statistical System, in a major way has a similar responsibility to take along with it the state level statistical systems, meeting their training requirements for all those involved in management of their system. The National Government is committed towards this end and would be ready to take further steps. I am confident that NASA will play a pivotal role towards creating professionally trained statistical manpower to manage the field level challenges of data collection, timely collation, and dissemination. I am also convinced that NASA will fill the gaps which our educational institutions are unable to bridge, that is exposing young students of statistics to the practical application of statistical methods. This will not only capture the innovative minds of the young but would also help create a pool of talent to meet the increasing demand for statistical persons, not only in the government but also in the private sector.

The setting up of NASA and its full fledged operationalisation from today are important initiatives of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and a positive contribution towards the development of our country for which I deeply appreciate my colleague Shri Vasan.


In conclusion, I hope that the Academy would transform the experience of training - for the trainees as well as the trainers, in a manner that when they walk out of the Academy, they are not only enriched in statistical tools and techniques, but also develop a unique outlook of life. An outlook that uses the facts only to be subservient to the truth. It is only then that we can say to have served statistics and served through statistics in the true sense.

Thank you.