Statistics Ministry will work with states on local GDP data

Business Business: The statistics ministry will increase interaction with governments for gross state domestic product (GSDP) and district-wise gross domestic product (GDP) data, Saurabh Garg, secretary in the ministry, said in Chennai on Friday. “Going forward, we want to have more interaction with state governments to ensure that the data that is collected is accurate and clear so that the GSDP data or district-level data is accurate so that policy-making is much [better],” Garg said at a data user conference on the recently released Annual Survey of Unorganised Sector Enterprises. States release district-wise data with a delay and cannot update it frequently. “We are working on the availability of data in a useful format,” Garg said, referring to the e-statistics portal launched by the ministry earlier this year. “All our data is collected on tablets, we have stopped using pen and paper,” Garg said about the work of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). National Statistical Commission chairman R L Karandikar told the conference that the ministry’s work is evolving rapidly. “MoSPI is trying to bring about changes and is seeking views on what can be done to make data available in a user-friendly format,” he said. Efforts are being made to reduce the time taken in releasing data and help users.