Informist, Monday, Sep 23, 2024

--Source: Looking to use technology to raise capacity to do surveys

--Source: Talking with e-tailers over anonymised data to aid in surveys

--Source: Anonymised GST data can help improve GDP estimates

--Govt source: Consumption survey every 3 years a 'real possibility'

--Source: To have monthly rural, urban labour force survey from Jan

--Govt source: Funding not an issue for statistics ministry's surveys

By Shubham Rana and Siddharth Upasani

NEW DELHI – India's statistics ministry is looking at ways to improve its ability to conduct more and more surveys, with greater use of technology and new sources of data at the top of its list. This, a senior government official told Informist, could make it easier to conduct crucial exercises such as the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey more frequently.

"When I say we want to use technology, then the in-person (survey) only supplements or complements the data what technology already has given you. And that's the reason we are being so bullish about being able to do more surveys, because we know that going forward we will be able to do maybe 50%, maybe 30%, maybe 70% - I don't know – of the job through technology and the balance has to be done through in-person surveys," the official said.

Asked if this could lead to important surveys such as the consumption expenditure survey – used to update India's retail inflation – being done more regularly at an interval of three years, the source said this was "a real possibility, yes".

The comments come at a time of increasing demands on the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation from other parts of the government for new surveys. While the second of the back-to-back Household Consumption Expenditure Survey was concluded recently, the pilot of the Annual Survey of Service Sector Enterprises is currently underway, the first ever private sector capital expenditure survey will start in October, and the initial preparations for the 8th Economic Census – to be held from April as part of the 80th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) – have also begun. The 80th round of the NSS will also see surveys being conducted on domestic tourism expenditure, household travel, and health, among others.

DEMAND FOR DATA

The increase in the number of surveys is due to a combination of greater demand for data to help in policymaking as well as a broader reform underway at the statistics ministry. And funding is not an issue.

"If we need good data, we can't be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Good data is the basis of decision-making and the government recognises that. There's a shared feeling that we need good, credible, and robust data," the source said.

As part of this effort, the government's flagship employment survey, the Periodic Labour Force Survey, is set to be released every month from 2025 for both rural and urban areas. Currently, the labour force survey for urban areas is conducted every quarter, while its rural counterpart only has an annual edition. Before the monthly launch in January, surveys for two quarters – Jul-Sep and Oct-Dec – will be conducted.

To be sure, a monthly labour survey will be on the basis of a smaller sample size and will, therefore, have a higher standard error – a measure of the accuracy of estimates. However, the official said that even with a higher standard error, the government's monthly labour force survey "will still be much better than other alternatives".

USING ANONYMISED DATA

The statistics ministry is looking to use more and more technology not just to boost its capacity but also the sources of data available to it. This includes the data collected by private sector entities such as e-commerce firms, but only after it has been made anonymous so that data privacy is not a concern.

"Fortunately, you can now anonymise data. Plus, we have the DPD Act (Digital Personal Data Protection Act) too, which takes care of (privacy) issues," the source said.

"So GST (Goods and Services Tax) data, anonymised, will help us give us better estimates of national accounts because we will have actual data rather than just survey-based data. E-commerce (companies), we are in talks with them if we can get some kind of anonymised data. We don't need data on how much each platform has sold. We just need anonymised, broad numbers, category-wise, or something of that sort." End

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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