The National Statistical Commission was set up on June 1st,2005 under the recommendations of the Rangarajan commission by the Government. This commission was established to provide statistical data and information of the entire nation to the public.
After facing a lot of criticism over the credibility and reliability of India’s official statistical system and due to lack of statutory power, the draft of The National Statistical Commission Bill, 2019 was released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on the 19th of December,2019.
The purpose of this bill is to constitute a National Statistical Commission to regulate, develop, and strengthen the official statistical system of the country in order to promote public confidence, ensuring timeliness and reliability and professionalism, adopting best statistical practices, achieving independence and integrity of official statistics and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. It extends to the whole of India. The NSC is now headed by Prof. Bimal K. Roy who is the Chairperson of the commission with its headquarters in New Delhi.
The salient features of the National Statistical Commission (NSC) Bill, 2019 are:
1. Composition of the NSC- The Bill proposes for the commission to employ for a full time Chairman and members to be nominated amongst eminent persons. It is also proposed to include amongst others, Deputy Governor, RBI as a member of Commission and also the Chief Economic Adviser as an ex-officio member.
2. Chief Statistician of India (CSI)- This position of Chief Statistician of India has been created to head the National Statistical Office (NSO). The Chief Statistician will also hold a position as a member of the NSC.
3. Statistical Audit- The draft bill provides for setting up of National Statistical Audit and Assessment Organization within the NSC to conduct audits from time to time. A Chief Statistical Auditor in the rank of Secretary of the Government of India will look after the statistical audit.
4. Independent Secretariat for Commission- The bill proposes that NSC to be a body corporate and to set up an independent secretariat in order to strengthen the autonomy of the commission with reliable information which will then be headed by a Secretary Rank Officer of the Government of India. It also highlights on the importance of financial autonomy of this commission which will be carried on through an independent fund called the National Statistical Fund.
5. Functions of NSC- The functions listed below have been given by the Rangarajan commission as follows:
i. A nodal empowered body should be set up to look after the Core Statistics which forms an integral part of the commission. These statistics have to be accurate and relevant as they are very critical and important in monitoring of the economy.
ii. A well-defined standard has to be set in order to evolve, monitor and enforce statistical priorities of data by way of periodical review and audit.
iii. To ensure a strong co-ordination through close linkage between the budget and statistical programming by way of rationalization.
The Draft bill explains in detail about various topics like qualification and appointment of the Chairperson, members, their administrative powers, powers and functions of the commission, offices and officers under the commission, list of official statistical products identified as core statistics and so on.
This Bill mainly focuses on the importance of encouraging the Government agencies to come forward, discuss and put forth their issues pertaining to the national statistical system and hence provide credible and reliable information of the economy.
References:
1. The National Statistical Commission Bill, 2019 (Draft Bill).
2. https://iasscore.in/current-affairs/prelims/national-statistical-commission-nsc-bill-2019
4. https://www.manifestias.com/2020/01/07/draft-national-statistical-commission-bill-2019/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Statistical_Commission
– Shivani Patki
