Secondary data

Secondary data

Secondary data is collected and processed by some other agency but the investigator uses it for his study. They can be obtained from published sources such as government reports, documents, newspapers, books written by economists or from any other source., for example websites. Use of secondary data saves time and cost. Before using the secondary data scrutiny must be done to assess the suitability, reliability, adequacy, and accuracy of the data.

Sources of Secondary Data

The secondary data comes from two main sources, namely published or unpublished.

The published sources include:

·           Government Publications - Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Bulletin, Statistical Abstracts of India by Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Statistical Abstracts of Tamil Nadu by the Department of Economics and Statistics, Government of Tamil Nadu.

·           International Publications - Publications of World Health Organizations, World Bank, International Labor Organizations, United Nations Organizations

·           Publications of Research institutes – Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

·           Journals or Magazines or Newspapers - Economic Times, Business Line

The data which are not published are also available in files and office records Government and Private organizations. The different sources described above are schematically described below.

The following table compares the two types of data.

Comparison between Primary and Secondary data