A recent report of the Ministry of statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) brings forth the dichotomy between digital divide and India’s transition towards a cashless economy. The rural-urban divide in access to computer and internet is quite stark, according to the report entitled 'Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India, July 2017 to June 2018'.   The 75th round National Sample Survey (NSS) report on education finds that...

-The Indian Express As of now, the government does have a calender for release of data sets such as national accounts, Index of Industrial Production and inflation. But there are no specific timeline for release of labour force statistics and consumption expenditure surveys. Putting in place a release calendar for all official economic data sets and ensuring their timely release is key to restoring the credibility of India’s statistics, according to Pronab...

-Livemint.com * The Centre has no money for a stimulus package. Only the states can find a way to get India out of the slowdown * States, taken collectively, are the only hope. Despite loan waivers, they are in a better position to boost public spending. But that would require coordinated work between the Centre?and the states NEW DELHI: On 1 February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present an important Union budget. The...

-The Hindu The present national accounting and analytical framework misses out on many key dimensions of a complex economy The new series of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures with 2011-12 as base, released in 2015, has not gone well with analysts; the withholding of employment-unemployment data for some time and consumer expenditure data, which is not released, added to this unease. Bringing the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the fold of...

-Livemint.com The government’s inordinately large food stockpiles have resulted in an artificial market scarcity On 7 January, the ministry of statistics released India’s advance estimates of national income for 2019-20, pegging the economy’s growth rate this financial year at 5%. Based on data available for the first two quarters, this seems an overestimate. Most indicators suggest that actual growth may be lower than 5%. This is bad news, especially since there is...