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The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) has clarified on the resignation of two members of the National Statistical Commission (NSC).
Two external members of the NSC, PC Mohanan, acting chairman, and JV Meenakshi, had resigned citing disagreement with the Centre on the labour force survey results and the Back Series of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Now, there are no external members left in the commission. Their tenure was to end in June 2020.
“The Members had expressed certain concerns on the functioning of the Commission including release of the labour force survey results and the Back Series of GDP. These concerns were not expressed by the Members in any of the meetings of the Commission in the last few months,” a statement from the MOSPI said.
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Commenting on the concerns that have been raised regarding the labour force survey being conducted by the Ministry through the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), MOSPI said, “The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) has been designed to yield annual estimates of the labour force on employment and unemployment along with quarterly estimates for the urban areas.”
“NSSO is processing the quarterly data for the period July 2017 to December 2018 and the report will be released thereafter. Keeping in view India’s strong demographic dividend and around 93 per cent of the informal workforce, it is important to improve measures of employment through administrative statistics and complemented by periodic surveys,” MOSPI said.
“In this direction, the Ministry has started bringing out estimates of new subscribers/members enrolling in large social security schemes like the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme and the National Pension Scheme (NPS). The new members enrolling in these schemes are a good measure about the numbers in the workforce moving towards formalization,” the MOSPI statement added.
In so far as the Back Series of the GDP is concerned, the National Statistical Commission had itself urged the Ministry to finalise and release it.
“The official estimates of the Back Series of GDP were accordingly computed using the methodology adopted in the 2011-12 Base Year series and this was approved by the experts in the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics, which is the appropriate body. This was later discussed in the National Statistical Commission. Moreover, the methodology adopted by the Ministry for the Back Series is available in the public domain,” MOSPI said.
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