India is stepping up efforts to strengthen its statistical ecosystem, with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) pushing for tighter coordination with states, improved data governance and expanded national surveys, Secretary Saurabh Garg said on Wednesday.
Speaking at CII’s IndiaEdge 2025 event on Wednesday, December 3, Garg said “harmonisation and standardisation of data with states is being pursued by MoSPI,” noting that aligning methodologies across jurisdictions remains priority.
Garg stressed the importance of strengthening data governance, remarking that “audit of statistical data is important” and adding that a mechanism for this would need to be worked out. He also encouraged broader use of official datasets, stating that “official/administrative data needs to be also leveraged by the private sector.”
On upcoming exercises, he said MoSPI expects to conduct the economic census in 2027 after the population census, adding that the ministry is “working on increasing the availability of data sets.” From January this year, MoSPI has also begun generating district-level indices in collaboration with state governments.
The operational updates come at a time when MoSPI is preparing to release GDP figures using a revised base year. Following India’s 8.2% GDP growth in Q2, the ministry announced that Q3 GDP for FY26 will be released using the new 2022–23 base.
Subhash Garg said on November 28, “The first advance estimate in January will follow the existing 2011–12 base, but the second advance estimate on February 27 and Q3 numbers will be calculated on the new base… we will also release Q1 and Q2 in the new series.”
This marks the first revision of the GDP base year since 2011–12. The updated series aims to better reflect India’s evolving economic structure by integrating administrative and enterprise-level datasets and improving estimates across manufacturing, agriculture, construction, real estate and services.
MoSPI has already released a discussion paper outlining the revised methodology and, on November 26, held the first consultative workshop in Mumbai on the upcoming base-year update for GDP, CPI and IIP.
