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Give statutory authority to National Statistical Commission: Parliamentary Panel

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary panel on Tuesday stressed the need for a strong, independent National Statistical Commission (NSC) with statutory authority to ensure credibility of official statistics. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, in its 27th Report on 'Performance review of NSC' pertaining to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, noted that discrepancies between official and private data undermine trust due to a lack of uniform standards. The panel has recommended empowering the NSC as the nodal body to prescribe methodologies, harmonise data practices, and involve private agencies and experts through a permanent technical committee. Suggesting a provision of statutory authority to NSC and empowering it as the nodal national body for statistics, it said, The Committee stressed the need for a strong, independent National Statistical Commission (NSC) with statutory authority to ensure credibility of official statistics. The Committee recommended integration of AI in the National Statistical System to enhance efficiency, accuracy and timeliness of data and also stressed the need for capacity building for the workforce with a clear ethical framework and guidelines for responsible AI use. The Committee appreciated India's active global statistical engagements and adherence to international standards, however, noting the limited translation into tangible domestic outcomes. The panel recommended the need for a comprehensive roadmap for international collaborations and research and development initiatives through MoUs, joint research and structured capacity-building programmes with reputed global institutions and universities. The NSC is chaired by an eminent statistician and its four members have specialization and experience in specified statistical and allied fields. The Chairman and Members of the National Statistical Commission are selected on the basis of the recommendations of a Search Committee duly constituted by the Government of India for the purpose, from time to time, it noted. As per provisions of Resolution dated 1 June 2005, the Commission has the requisite autonomy to discharge its functions effectively and efficiently, it noted. The Commission also has the authority to formulate its short and long-term programmes. The NSC has evolved necessary measures and mechanism by constituting professional committees, expert committees and working groups to assist the Commission on various technical issues, it noted. About any mandate provisioned for the NSC through which it can give recommendations to the ministry, the MOSPI said in its reply to the panel, As per the provisions in the Resolution dated 1 June 2005, the NSC can give recommendations to the Ministry. The NSC may recommend to the Central Government or State Government(s) measures to effectively implement the standards, strategies and other measures evolved by it. Further, the NSC may 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. The draft NSC Bill 2019 proposes to establish a National Statistical Commission(NSC), as the nodal and autonomous body for all core statistical activities for the country, to evolve, monitor and enforce statistical priorities and standards and to ensure statistical coordination. About the little progress on the bill despite seeking public comment, the ministry said, The NSC has autonomy to discharge its functions effectively and efficiently. The NSC has evolved adequate measures and mechanism in this regard. In view of this, at present, regarding Statutory Body there is no such proposal under consideration. The panel observed that a strong, independent statistical authority is essential for ensuring public trust in official statistics. The Rangarajan Commission (2000) recommended creating a permanent, statutory body for official statistics, but the National Statistical Commission (NSC), established in 2005, was never given this legislative framework, it noted. It observed that the existence of different data producers, including a growing number of private data providers, creates the possibility of discrepancies between their statistical estimates and those published by the NSC, particularly for key indicators like GDP. These potential inconsistencies, which can undermine stakeholder confidence, are largely a result of the NSC's lack of statutory authority to enforce uniform standards and methodologies across all data producers, including those in the private sector, it pointed out. It recommended that the NSC be established as the nodal and autonomous body for all core statistical activities, with full statutory backing. This empowerment would allow the NSC to prescribe and coordinate statistical standards and methodologies for both government and private sector data producers, it stated. To achieve this, the Committee desired that the NSC constitute a permanent technical committee, including representatives from private statistical agencies, academia, and industry experts. The NSC should also develop a comprehensive National Statistical Standards Framework, similar to the accounting standards set by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), to harmonise data collection procedures, sampling designs, and reporting protocols, it suggested. It recommended institutionalising regular data sharing, joint methodological reviews, and publishing reconciliation reports to explain and minimise differences between official and private sector estimates.

2 Dec 2025 4:23 pm