Former CII president Sanjiv Bajaj said the industry has consistently highlighted the need for reliable and timely data, and described the proposal for a National Statistical Authority as “a step in the right direction”. He said the industry body had held “extensive consultations for a forward-looking economic roadmap” with a “single-minded focus on strengthening the competitiveness of the Indian industry”.
Bajaj added that broader institutional reforms were also necessary, calling for the creation of an independent fiscal council and a counter-cyclical buffer fund. He further said it was an “opportune time to look at privatisation”.
The Standing Committee’s 27th report, Performance Review of the National Statistical Commission, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, said the NSC—set up in 2005 as the apex body for statistical governance—had not been able to fulfil its mandate because it lacks statutory backing. It recommended that the NSC be restructured as an autonomous institution reporting to Parliament, similar to models like the UK Statistics Authority.
The committee reiterated the 2001 recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission, which had called for a permanent statutory body for official statistics. The absence of such a framework, the report said, has restricted the NSC’s ability to enforce uniform standards across public and private data producers, often resulting in inconsistencies in key indicators such as GDP.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), however, told the panel that the NSC already has sufficient autonomy to carry out its functions and that there is currently no proposal under consideration to grant it statutory status.
The committee also urged MoSPI to prioritise the adoption of an artificial intelligence-driven integration strategy for the national sample survey, emphasising capacity building, targeted training, and collaboration with academic and research institutions.
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