NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagriya will head a task force to assess the extent of employment creation at different points of time, based on “credible data”, as directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As of now, the new series of quarterly employment data in eight key sectors is collected by the Labour Bureau under the Labour Ministry.

“India suffers from a lack of reliable, timely data on employment which has made it difficult for policy makers and independent observers to assess the extent of employment generation at different points of time. Some data is collected and published by certain agencies, including the Labour Bureau, but the coverage is very small.

“The Labour Bureau data cover only a few sectors and the methodology is not based on updated panel of survey respondents. The net result has been that both policy making and analysis are conducted in a data vacuum,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). It said in view of the importance of timely and reliable data on employment, the Prime Minister had directed the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministries concerned to come up with a solution to fill this “long standing gap in the country’s statistical architecture”, adding that “the Prime Minister has directed that this task be expedited so that policies on employment can be formulated with a proper appreciation of impacts, based on credible data.”

The task force will include Labour Secretary Sathiyavathy, Secretary, Statistics TCA Ananth, Pulak Ghosh of NITI Aayog and Manish Sabharwal (Member, Reserve Bank of India Board) as members.

“The task force will recommend solutions which can be implemented in a time-bound manner,” the release said, adding that the government attached “the highest priority to job creation.”

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