Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) organized the second round of sensitization cum review meeting of Statistical Advisers (SAs) on December 23, 2024 at Kaushal Bhawan, New Moti Bagh, New Delhi.  The meeting was aimed at greater awareness, feedback, coordinated and institutional approach for internalizing the system of Statistical Advisers across central Ministries/Departments for a robust data driven decision making ecosystem, as initiated by MoSPI in August 2024.  The meeting was attended by Statistical Advisers and representatives various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India.

In his inaugural address, the chief guest of the event, Shri B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, CEO, NITI Aayog, underscored the pivotal role of reliable and timely data in shaping effective policies, decision making, monitoring and course correction. He appreciated the recent efforts of MoSPI towards reforming the Indian statistical system including compression in time-lines of data release, Data & Innovation lab etc.  He expressed his happiness over the wave of the initiatives by MoSPI in the area of official statistics. He highlighted that a lot of work needs to be done in the area of business statistics by MoSPI and other stakeholders.  He emphasized that Statistics is at the foundation of work of every Ministry. While indicating challenges in utilizing the administrative datasets and use of API based integration of data, he urged the Statistical Advisers and other ISS officers to utilize their core strength and focus on skilling and upscaling themselves for utilizing data available with them for utilizing data for better decision making.

Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, MoSPI, while indicating about concrete actions taken by MoSPI for statistical reform including works of Research & Analysis for policy insights, e-Sankhyiki, Data & Innovation, emphasized that there is an urgent need to leverage the data for decision making. He indicated that the main objective of defining the roles of statistical advisers and initiating the discussion with them is to ensure a regular and organic link between Central Ministries and MoSPI. He stressed that in order to achieve the goals of Viksit Bharat @2047, the data will play a more relevant role by tracking the progress of various associated targets. He highlighted that the role of Statistical Advisers is crucial in maintaining the quality as per standards, addressing the data gaps in administrative data, use of unique identifiers, including upholding the highest standards of statistical rigor and promoting seamless collaboration among stakeholders as envisaged in their roles.

During the meeting, presentations and deliberations on various subjects of common interest were also made. Representative from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology made a presentation on AI Curation Units / India AI Datasets Platform. The representatives of MoSPI presented institutional Readiness for Emerging Technologies (AI/ML/Big Data), Expansion of Coverage of e-Sankhiyiki Portal and Compendium of Datasets & Registries, the use and implementation of Collection of Statistics Act,2008 and recent associated developments; Institutional Mechanisms for Metadata Reporting and Data Quality Reviews, Effective Use of Surveys and Data Gap Filling, Use of New Data Sources in Revised Series of GDP, Coordination on Global Indices and Infrastructure Project Monitoring. During the presentations, specific supports required from various Ministries/Departments were solicited for better data sharing, use of emerging tools for effective use of data and implementation of legal & policy framework of data collection, ease of data access and data sharing across various agencies and users. Sessions were followed by detailed questions and answers soliciting the feedback of the participants for improving the Statistical System of the country.

Institutionalisation of Statistical Advisers to enforce data quality standards and enable legal data sharing frameworks for decision making. MoSPI is institutionalising Statistical Advisers to define roles, enforce data quality standards and metadata reporting, address administrative data gaps via unique identifiers and API integration, and implement the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 to improve data collection and sharing, while advancing readiness for AI/ML/Big Data and expanding the e-Sankhyiki portal and dataset registries.