Official Statistics

Official Statistics

Official Statistics are statistics published by government agencies or other public bodies such as international organizations. They provide quantitative or qualitative information on all major areas of citizens’ lives. Official Statistics make information on economic and social development accessible to the public, allowing the impact of government policies to be assessed, thus improving accountability.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) came into existence as an Independent Ministry in 1999 after the merging of the Department of Statistics and the Department of Programme Implementation.

The Ministry has two wings, Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The Statistics Wing called the National Statistical Office (NSO) consists of the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the Computer Centre and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).

Central Statistical Office (CSO)

The Central Statistical Office is one of the two wings of the National Statistical Organisation (NSO). It is responsible for co-ordination of statistical activities in the country and for evolving and maintaining statistical standards. Its activities include compilation of National Accounts; conduct of Annual Survey of Industries and Economic Censuses, compilation of Index of Industrial Production as well as Consumer Price Indices. It also deals with various social statistics, training, international cooperation, Industrial Classification, etc.

The CSO is headed by a Director-General who is assisted by 5 Additional Director-Generals looking after the National Accounts Division, Social Statistics Division, Economic Statistics Division, Training Division and the Coordination and Publication Division.

CSO is located in the Sardar Patel Bhawan, Parliament Street, New Delhi. The Industrial Statistics Wing of CSO is located in Kolkata. The Computer Centre also under the CSO is located in R K Puram, New Delhi.

National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)

The National Sample Survey Organisation, now known as National Sample Survey Office, is an organization under the Ministry of Statistic of the Government of India.It is the largest organisation in India, conducting regular socio-economic surveys. It was established in 1950. NSSO has four divisions:

1.        Survey Design and Research Division (SDRD)

2.        Field Operations Division (FOD)

3.        Data Processing Division (DPD)

4.        Co-ordination and Publication Division (CPD)

The Programme Implementation Wing has three Divisions, namely,

i.               Twenty Point Programme

ii.               Infrastructure Monitoring and Project Monitoring

iii.               Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme.

Besides these three wings, there is National Statistical Commission created through a Resolution of Government of India (MOSPI) and one autonomous Institute, viz., Indian Statistical Institute declared as an institute of National importance by an Act of Parliament.