Exclusive: The National Statistical Commission, an autonomous body overseeing official statistics in India, caves under pressure from the government and decides not to release the NSO's consumer spending report of 2017-18.
business-standard.com/article/econom…
business-standard.com/article/econom…
The Centre had decided to junk the official survey of FY18, conducted by the NSO, after @bsindia reported in Nov. that consumer spending fell 3.7% between FY12 and FY18 (indicating rising level of poverty in the country).
business-standard.com/article/econom…
business-standard.com/article/econom…
However, in December, NSC Chairman (who holds the position of a Minister of State) told @bsindia in an interview that he is not in favour of scrapping the consumer spending report and will ensure that it is released in 2 months.
(The Centre hadn't consulted the NSC till then.)
(The Centre hadn't consulted the NSC till then.)
When asked why the NSC departed from its earlier view, Roy said: “I did try. I made a proposal (in an NSC meeting on January 15) to release the survey but I didn’t find support."
A source said Chief Statistician Pravin Srivastava objected to the release of the survey data.
A source said Chief Statistician Pravin Srivastava objected to the release of the survey data.
However, in the meeting, one NSC member raised objections & pressed for the data to be made public. The person’s views weren’t incorporated in the minutes of the meeting. “This raises eyebrows on the manner in which the discussions were conducted within the NSC,” the source said.
The government will now conduct fresh back-to-back surveys on consumer spending in FY21 and FY22 with an 'improved methodology'. An expert committee led by former chief statistician Pronab Sen to re-work the new survey on consumer expenditure has been set up last week.
However, Sen said that the government will face serious challenges in conducting fresh surveys due to recent #CAA_NRCProtests. "There is a likelihood of a fair amount of non-response, which can actually contaminate the data quite badly,” Sen said.
(Read: livemint.com/news/india/gov…)
(Read: livemint.com/news/india/gov…)
This will be the first time in India's history that an official survey report will be scrapped without it being made public. Take a look at the timeline of events:
