Of late, the Indian data collection machinery has repeatedly come under fire for failing to generate reliable and relevant data at the right time. While the Prime Minister himself expressed urgency for a complete overhaul of the data collection system, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy too has questioned the reliability of official indexes such as the index of industrial production (IIP). Speaking to Jayant Singh, chief statistician of India Pronab Sen said there was a need to revise major indexes every 4-5 years given the pace at which the economy is changing. However, that can’t be achieved unless the problem of manpower shortage is solved. Excerpts:

The Prime Minister recently said the end of Licence Raj has made data collection difficult. How fair is it to make such a statement?

Because of licensing, companies had to submit data, otherwise there were fairly stringent penalties. But the moment that went, data flow also vanished, which is why we are now trying to strengthen the Collection of Statistics Act. We’ll be able to collect most of this kind of information under that Act where we’ve introduced more stringent penalties for not providing the correct or the entire data.

What stage is the new wholesale price index series in right now?

It’s in the data collection stage. We have moved from some 400 companies to about 1,800. So there are almost five times the number of companies which have to submit data now. Most of them haven’t submitted this data ever. It is important to first get that data and then sustain month-on-month data flow over the long run. We have to make sure that’s taken care of before we start releasing data. That can be done only some time next year.

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