-Frontline.in Available evidence indicates that the employment situation in India may have worsened in the recent past, and the losses have been heavy for the informal sector. The delayed release of official data on employment only makes diagnosis difficult. This year’s Union Budget, even if truncated because of its interim nature, was widely anticipated for the manner in which it would address the question of employment. In the last week of January,...

  How is it possible that we get different figures on area brought under micro-irrigation pertaining to the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)-Per Drop More Crop (PDMC)--a scheme which is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare? The dashboard (https://pmksy.gov.in/mis/frmDashboard.aspx) of PMKSY-Per Drop More Crop clearly shows that 11.25 lakh hectare was brought under micro-irrigation in the financial year 2017-18. Please check chart-1. Chart 1: Physical target versus achievement --...

-The Indian Express My resignation from National Statistical Commission was the last act in a long story of disregard for its reports William Setzer, in the working paper, “Politics and statistics: Independence, Dependence or Interaction”, published by the UN, lists several possible areas where political interference in official data generation and publication can happen. One of these is the extent and timing of release of data. He cites several examples. Most...

-The Hindu There needs to be robust infrastructure for official statistics so that governments do not suppress inconvenient truths Over the past two weeks, headlines have focussed on declining employment between 2011-12 and 2016-17; loss of jobs under the National Democratic Alliance government, particularly post-demonetisation; and the government’s refusal to release a report using the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) documenting this decline, leading to resignations of two members of the National...

-The Telegraph Setting the record straight on the Narendra Modi establishment’s pervasive data-twisting Post truth. This seems to be the only surviving truth in today’s India, a country overrun with bare-faced lies, falsehood, deceit and invented truths — statistics. Note the brazen manner in which the chief of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Bibek Debroy, declared recently that a new national sample survey will be conducted by the government to...