“As you said the last quarter was extremely positive. The initial data releases from April, for example, we released the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data, it was at 4.9 per cent. Today afternoon we will be releasing the IIP data for May. It will not be correct for me to anticipate that data, but all indications are that despite the global headwinds, the economy continues to do well and the resilience of the economy is coming out”, he told ANI.
He said this to ANI in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the 20th Statistics Day celebrations in New Delhi. This year’s theme, “Unlocking the Potential of Administrative Data for Decision-Making,” focused on leveraging the growing volume of government-generated data for evidence-based policymaking.
On being asked about the impact of global geopolitical headwinds on the Indian economy, Garg said the available data showed that the economy remained resilient despite external challenges.
“As I mentioned, the data shows that the economy is extremely resilient and despite headwinds it continues to grow well. I would just say that we hope that will continue. The future is looking bright,” he said.
He said the growth of Digital India over the past decade has generated vast volumes of administrative data that can be leveraged for evidence-based policymaking.
“The Hon’ble Prime Minister has been focusing a lot on data-driven decision-making. If we are talking of Viksit Bharat by 2047, the policies that we take, the decisions that we take have to be so much more focused and more data-driven,” Garg said.He said MoSPI is working to ensure that administrative data generated across ministries and departments is harmonised so that it is interoperable, machine-readable and based on standard classifications, enabling different datasets to communicate seamlessly and support more effective decision-making over the coming decade.
“On our part, the Ministry of Statistics is helping to ensure that the data is more harmonised so it is interoperable, it can speak to different datasets, it follows a standard classification and all the data is machine-readable. Keeping in view the future possibilities of administrative data, that is what is being discussed today and this will be very important for the next decade or so, so that decisions are much more data-based,” he said.
Highlighting the role of technology in modernising official statistics, Garg said the Ministry has completely moved away from pen-and-paper surveys and now conducts all field data collection through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI).
He said frontier technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), are also being deployed, while portals, mobile applications and data visualisation tools are making official statistics easier to access and understand.
“The technology should be such that it is intuitive, that people who do not have a knowledge of technology are able to understand the data, are able to visualise it and more effectively utilise it for day-to-day activities,” he said.
On the challenges associated with administrative data, Garg said data harmonisation remains one of the biggest tasks before the Ministry. Making datasets accessible, ensuring they are machine-readable and enabling seamless data exchange across ministries and departments are among the other key priorities.
He said MoSPI is working with state governments and other ministries and departments to address these challenges and build a stronger data ecosystem for the future.