By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 09, 2018: WHILE speaking at 'Data for New India', the Union Minister, Mr Sadananda Gowda, pointed out that policy makers are best served by statistics that are relevant for policy decisions, accurate, timely and credible. Institutions, public or private, rely on high-quality, publicly available data and statistics as the foundation for informed decisions on a wide variety of issues. The success of a democratic system of governance depends on the uninterrupted flow of statistical information that citizens can use to assess government actions.

He said that it is globally recognized that official statistics must comply with certain basic principles, such as confidentiality, professional independence, impartiality, external accountability and transparency, so as to enhance public trust in statistics and make them as public goods. The basic principles are enshrined in the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics evolved in 1994.

In 2014, when the United Nations General Assembly took up the agenda on these Fundamental Principles, India supported the Resolution of the Assembly. After the endorsement by the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, the NDA Government formally adopted the Principles in the year 2016.

In furtherance of these Principles, the Govt is in the process of evolving a National Policy on Official Statistics with a view of providing a framework for improving our official statistical system.