The Hindu : National : Evolve national quality standards for statistics: Manmohan

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Saturday, Jun 30, 2007
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Evolve national quality standards for statistics: Manmohan

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday called for evolving national quality standards for statistics and increased coordination between the Central Ministries and the State Governments to achieve expeditious implementation of development programmes.

Inaugurating the first ‘Statistics Day’ celebrations here on the occasion of the birth anniversary of renowned statistician P.C. Mahalanobis, he emphasised the role of statistics in India’s progress towards becoming a knowledge economy to integrate with the international economic order. In such a situation, the hallmark of a country’s reputation would be the credibility and transparency of its statistical system.

Referring to the National Statistical Commission, set up by the Government last year with this objective, Dr. Singh said two aspects of its wide-ranging mandate were of particular importance. “The first is to evolve and lay down national quality standards in different areas of statistics and the second is to exercise statistical coordination between Ministries, Departments and State Governments.”

He appealed to all concerned to extend full cooperation to the Commission and actively seek its assistance in improving the country’s statistical data bases. “We should all be proud of our collective heritage in the field of statistics and resolve to take our country to the pinnacle of this discipline,” he said.

Dr. Singh expressed the hope that young statisticians from India would continue to lead the world in theoretical and applied statistics and bring a further sense of pride and accomplishment to the nation.

The National Statistical Commission, headed by S.D. Tendulkar, was set up last year with the aim of improving the country’s statistical system. The arms-length relationship between the Commission and the Government, the Prime Minister said, should provide credibility and transparency to the system and improve the level of confidence people had in official data. It would help in “improving both the completeness and the accuracy of the data collected.”

Describing Prof. Mahalanobis as a great institution builder, Dr. Singh paid glorious tributes to his pioneering contribution in a wide range of areas including anthropology, educational testing, statistical quality control, agriculture, flood control, and meteorology.

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