The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India and National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to use new data technologies, knowledge generation and knowledge sharing, and capacity building in the field of Official Statistics. The MoU was signed on 29th January, 2019 in the presence of Shri Pravin Srivastava, Secretary, MoSPI cum Chief Statistician of India, Shri Jyotirmoy Poddar, Director General, Central Statistics Office, Shri Shekhar Shah, Director General, NCAER and other senior officers of both the organizations at New Delhi. The MoU would lead to strengthening and  better monitoring of data quality and timeliness of various statistical products and services generated by the Ministry including, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Economic Census, Price Statistics, Index of Industrial Production (IIP), and Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), etc.

The following are the key activities envisaged under the MoU:

• Business Process Review (“BPR”) of the existing official statistics system and development of aninformation and communication technology (“ICT”) plan for mainstreaming data integration across various domains and agencies.
• Using technology for survey instruments and processing of data for large scale surveys and data analytics.
• Creation of a national data warehouse to integrate administrative statistical datasets available up to the local Government level.
• Leveraging administrative data to improve the quality and coverage of core statistics with technical support and collaboration with data producers.
• Setting up common standards and protocols for data collection, its quality, meta-data and use across line ministries and sub-national entities.
• Development of new ICT based framework for measurement of social and economic indicators in the emerging knowledge based economy.
• Capacity building for statistical activities including big data analytics, technical reporting etc.

Memorandum of Understanding on official statistics strengthens data integration and quality across government statistical systems. Memorandum of Understanding establishes collaboration to strengthen the official statistics system by improving data quality and timeliness of core outputs and to mainstream data integration across agencies. Operative initiatives include a Business Process Review and ICT plan, technology adoption for survey instruments and analytics, creation of a national data warehouse integrating administrative datasets to local government level, leveraging administrative data to improve coverage, setting common data standards and metadata protocols, developing ICT frameworks for new indicators, and capacity building in big data analytics and technical reporting.