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Informist, Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2025

NEW DELHI – The statistics ministry has set up a working group to prepare a plan to develop a Statistical Business Register and official statistics based on the database. The 21-member Working Group on Integrated Official Business Statistics, which includes representatives from the finance ministry, the Reserve Bank of India, and the NITI Aayog, among other parts of the government, must submit its report within three months.

The working group's terms of reference also include reviewing all sources of administrative data such as the Goods and Services Tax Network and the corporate affairs ministry to develop the Statistical Business Register, which is a register of enterprises or establishments involved in business activity. Initially envisioned as a follow-up exercise to the 7th Economic Census--which has effectively been shelved--the Statistical Business Register can be linked with existing government databases. Business registers can also be used to identify firms for surveys.

According to the United Nations' guidelines on Statistical Business Registers, these registers are to be used only for statistical purposes. "It may not be used for other purposes, in particular administrative purposes. The reason for this is the confidentiality of individual data collected by national statistical offices," as per the guidelines. India started its four-year membership of the United Nations Statistical Commission in January 2024.

The terms of reference of the working group also include developing a mechanism to ensure regular sharing of administrative data, creating a framework that dynamically updates the register such that the birth, death, splitting, and merger of businesses are captured. Further, the group must build capabilities so that basic and advanced analytics can be produced "to transform statistical producers into knowledge generators", as per an office memorandum reviewed by Informist, which said the group must develop the technology infrastructure to host, maintain, and ensure security and confidentiality of the data.

Last year in November, Saurabh Garg, secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, had said the ministry was focussing on standardising administrative data generated by various ministries. The ministry is also looking to incorporate alternative sources of data and administrative data into official statistics.  End

Reported by Siddharth Upasani

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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