India’s draft policy on official statistics misses the mark

livemint.com:

reliance on some kind of surveys, they do not eliminate their need in many other areas. Most large economies depend on detailed questionnaires sent to businesses to track changes in business activity and economic parameters. Adding these questions in regular administrative forms can raise compliance costs, especially for small firms.

Hence, only minimal information is canvassed through administrative records. To obtain detailed data, a randomly chosen set of firms is surveyed. This need is greater in countries that have incomplete administrative records and large informal sectors.

Also, note that surveys and administrative records are not always substitutes. Often they are complementary. In fact, improvements in administrative records can help improve survey quality.

For instance, if factory inspectors are able to improve the coverage of factories in each state, it would help to improve the coverage and quality of the Annual Survey of Industries, whose sampling frame is based on lists supplied by factory inspectors. Surveys, in turn, can be used to track under-coverage of administrative data-sets. The Registrar General of India relies on surveys to check the coverage of birth and death registrations.

Overall, Mospi’s draft policy does not seem to provide a clear and coherent framework for rebuilding India’s statistical edifice. We need to set up a high-level statistical reforms commission headed by a non-partisan statistician or technocrat. This body should present a detailed statistical strategy document after consulting all key stakeholders, including India’s community of non-official data users.