The major initiatives undertaken during 2018 to further improve statistical system to meet data requirements in emerging socio-economic scenario of the country included the following:

(i)    During the year steps have been initiated for next revision of base years. The Ministry has released back series estimates for the 2011-12 base on 28.11.2018.

(ii)    Government constituted a Committee for Sub-National Accounts under the Chairmanship of Prof. Ravindra H. Dholakia, ex-IIM, to upgrade existing norms and evolve new ones for computation of economic data at State and District levels for revision of the base year of GDP. The earlier such Committee was set up in the year 1972.

(iii)    The Ministry notified General Guidelines on Quality Assurance for Official Statistics in April, 2018 for voluntary compliance by Government agencies for improving quality of statistical products as per the Generic National Quality Assurance Framework endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission.

(iv)    The Ministry notified General Guidelines on Socio-Economic Indices in April, 2018 to help the Government agencies in improving the quality of indices like the CPI, IIP and WPI.

(v)    National Indicator Framework has been developed by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) for monitoring progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Cabinet, in its meeting held on 24.10.2018, has approved the proposal of MoSPI for constitution of High Level Steering Committee to periodically review, refine and modify the National Indicator Framework.

(vi)    A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between MoSPI and United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) with overall objective to collaborate on issues related to Statistical monitoring of Goals and Targets of SDGs, including the use of new technologies for monitoring, capacity development to track SDG related outcomes.

(vii)    The Ministry has participated in Smart India Hackathon 2018 organised at Hubli for promoting innovation in Official Statistics. The prototype solutions developed by teams of engineering students are being considered for refinements.

(viii)    Government has taken various steps to strengthen statistical systems in North- Eastern Region. During 2018-19 ₹ 12.53 crore has been released in so far for conducting surveys of NSSO. Besides an amount of around 8.27 crore is likely to be released during Jan 2019 by NSSO. The process of opening of two new Regional Offices of NSSO at Aizwal (Mizoram) and Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) and upgrading two Sub Regional Offices at Agartala (Tripura) and Imphal (Manipur) in North-East has been initiated.

(ix)    Consistent to the federal spirit, the Ministry has been conducting annual conferences of Central and State statistical organizations in which common statistical issues are discussed and shorted out. 26th Conference of Central State Statistical Organizations was held during 15-16th November, 2018 at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh.

(x)    Government has declared 29th June, the birth anniversary of Late Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis, as Statistics Day. A theme is announced on each Statistics Day for focusing attention by statistical agencies for a year. The 12th Statistics Day was celebrated on 29th June, 2018, which was the 125th birth anniversary of Late Prof. Mahalanobis. The theme “Quality Assurance in Official Statistics” was announced on this day. A commemorative coin of ₹ 125 and circulation coin of ₹ 5 denomination were released by Hon’ble Vice President of India.

(xi)    The Round Table Conference on Data for New India was organised in New Delhi during 9-10th July, 2018. The Conference is a precursor to the range of reforms being initiated by MoSPI under the Capacity Development Scheme and World Bank funded reforms. The Conference was attended by both international participants from U.K., Canada, Australia and national participants to discuss the reform agenda for the Indian Statistical System.

(xii)    The Ministry participated in bilateral consultation and technical assistance to National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA), Afganistan during 6-7th December, 2018.

(xiii)    The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved continuation of the Capacity Development Scheme for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of ₹ 2,250 crore. Preparatory activities for undertaking 7th Economic Census, Time Use Survey (TUS), Annual Survey of Service Sector Enterprises (ASSSE), and Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) are being initiated.

(xiv)    The Ministry is responsible for monitoring of Central Sector Infrastructure Projects costing ₹ 150 crore or more. As on 01.03.2018, a total of such 1417 projects with anticipated cost of ₹ 20.78 lakh crore are being monitored through Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS). Of these, 317 are showing time overruns, 362 are showing cost overruns and 124 are showing both time and cost overruns with respect to their original project implementation schedule. The cost overrun with respect to original cost is 19.55% in August 2018. An analysis of Time overrun in the last 4 years shows that the number of project having time overrun with respect to the original schedule has come down from 29.44% in March, 2014 to 22.37% in August, 2018. The details of Central Sector Infrastructure Projects are available in flash report at www.cspm.gov.in/publications.

(xv)    Various workshops were conducted for State DES personals on the use of unit level data of NSS/ASI/EC through IHSN toolkit.

Quality assurance in official statistics strengthened through guidelines, national indicators and capacity development to improve socio economic data. Ministry initiatives strengthened statistical foundations through a base year revision and a Committee for Sub National Accounts, issued General Guidelines on Quality Assurance and on socio economic indices, and developed a National Indicator Framework for SDG monitoring supported by a High Level Steering Committee and an MoU with the UN. The Capacity Development Scheme underpinned preparatory work for major surveys and censuses, regional office expansion and training, innovation pilots, and continued online monitoring of central infrastructure project overruns.