Government's Focus on District-Level Estimates
The government is aiming to enhance the frequency and diversity of datasets to achieve more accurate district-level estimates, as highlighted by Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Key Initiatives and Surveys
- Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS):
- ASUSE covers both manufacturing and services sectors, including households and MSMEs.
- Data has been released quarterly for greater detail.
- Combined with PLFS, these datasets are crucial for calculating the District Domestic Product (DDP).
- Annual Survey of Service Sector Enterprises (ASSSE):
- To be launched in January 2026 to capture dynamics of the incorporated services sector.
- Forward-looking capital expenditure survey and household income survey are in the pipeline to address data gaps.
Collaboration with State Governments
The government is working with state governments for a bottoms-up approach to DDP calculation, which involves states in deriving district-level estimates, enhancing policy-making at local levels.
Use of GST and Other Datasets
- GST Data:
- Will be used in GDP compilation under the new base series but not available at a disaggregated level.
- Public Domain Datasets:
- Efforts are made to make datasets more easily discoverable, with 257 datasets identified in the first phase.
- Examples include e-vahan data for transport sector insights and trade statistics by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics.