## Counting Smarter

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**Canonical URL:** [Counting Smarter](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/in-the-trenches-counting-smarter-srikanth-srinivas)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: SRIKANTH SRINIVAS
- Published: November 18, 2025

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### Overview
- India’s national statistical system serves a diverse population of over 1.4 billion.
- Institutional scale: some 5,000 full-time staff members at the central level and over 6,000 field investigators and supervisors during major survey operations across the nation’s 28 states and 8 territories.
- Saurabh Garg, secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, is leading reforms to harness technology and digital public infrastructure to meet growing demand for real-time, granular data.

### Data collection and technology
- Core approach: continued door-to-door surveys supplemented by tablet-based data collection.
- Innovations in the field:
  - Tablet interfaces with AI chatbots to assist interviewers in real time.
  - Direct upload of tablet data to a background portal called e-SIGMA to streamline processing.
  - A mobile app, more intuitive website design, more infographics, and unit-level data downloadable for researchers.
  - Training videos for researchers, students, policymakers, and stakeholders on accessing unit-level data.

### Use of alternative and high-frequency data
- Official statistics remain primary for policymaking due to rigorous scientific methods, comprehensive quality control, and international comparability.
- The ministry is exploring incorporation of alternative data sources: e-commerce, scanner, mobile, satellite, and other high-frequency indicators to provide supplementary insights.

### Harmonization and metadata standards
- Steps to harmonize data across ministries and agencies:
  - A registry of all government data sets, with accounting for different levels of importance.
  - A national metadata structure shared with all ministries.
  - Alignment with international systems of classification and national classification systems to ensure consistency of definitions.
  - Use of unique identifiers for organizations and geographic locations; each agency must use its own identifier to allow interoperability.
  - Introduction of a method for reconciling discrepancies between administrative data sets.
- Focus on making other ministries’ data machine readable so users can collate, combine, and compare data sets.

### National accounts and SNA 2025
- The United Nations revised the System of National Accounts (SNA) this year (SNA 2025); India is incorporating required changes into a rebased methodology and new guidelines expected to be released over the next couple of years.
- Recent improvements:
  - Publication of different sectoral accounts annually; example this year includes forest and water accounts.
  - Availability of GST [goods and services tax] data (expenditure-side) that was not available at the last rebasing about a decade ago; GST data will provide more granular estimates for rebased GDP.
  - Aim: pair a robust production-side data set with an equally robust consumption-side data set to improve overall account accuracy.

### Resources and human capital
- Resource characterization:
  - Financial: ministry reports “We don’t have a budget constraint. We don’t need much money because our work is human- rather than finance-intensive.” Once IT infrastructure is in place, maintenance and operational costs are manageable.
  - Human: three levels of personnel:
    - Indian Statistical Service officers at the top, highly qualified and drawn from premier institutions.
    - Ground-level supervisors, many trained in statistics or mathematics.
    - Enumerators conducting door-to-door surveys, intensively trained.
- Capacity building: encouragement for officers to use the government-wide Karmayogi platform for skill building in areas like communication.

### Labor statistics enhancements
- Frequency and coverage:
  - Until last year: an annual labor force survey with quarterly updates covering only urban India.
  - Since January 2025: production of a monthly report for both urban and rural sectors, plus a quarterly report with more sectoral and employment-type detail.
- Sample and content improvements:
  - The sample size has been nearly doubled, increasing data granularity.
  - New questionnaire items on employment status, education, training and skill levels, and details on where respondents graduated or received certification.

### Key challenges identified
- Granularity and sample design:
  - Need for data at district, subdistrict, and village levels requires increased sample sizes and leads to increasing margin of error.
  - Manpower and financing implications arise from higher granularity needs.
- Frequency and timeliness:
  - Demand for higher-frequency data; reducing time lag between collection and dissemination is a priority and introduces additional complexities.
- Data cooperation and privacy:
  - Ensuring continued cooperation from people and organizations amid social-media-era privacy concerns while maintaining credibility and verifiability of data.

### Integrity, governance, and transparency
- Safeguards against political influence:
  - India adopted the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics in 2016; the ministry adheres to these principles emphasizing professional independence and accountability.
- Practices to build trust and scrutiny:
  - Regular stakeholder consultations and conferences to align technical work with user needs and expectations.
  - Publication of detailed documentation for large-scale sample surveys to allow independent scrutiny and enhance transparency.

*F&D Magazine, Counting Smarter, December 2025 — Interview with Saurabh Garg*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2025/12/in-the-trenches-counting-smarter-srikanth-srinivas_