Where does India gets its statistics from?
I have always wondered - apart from the well known statistical figures such as GDP and inflation rate (and may be a few more), where do we get data for our country that is considered good to make a broad public statement? The same question arose once again - I refer to the article in Times Of India, where our Overseas Indian Affairs minister Vyalar Ravi has made a stament that about 20,000 Indians have returned to India having lost jobs abroad owing to the current economic crisis.
Where have the numbers been pulled out from? The article says "the exact number of people who have returned are not available" and then further quotes "reports which indicate...". I would very much like to know what those reports are and where do those come from? Do they come from the immigration booths at each international airport of India? I doubt that. I cannot imagine the customs officer asking each and every desi looking person the question "did you loose your job abroad" and dutifully recording it. Or are there any recent changes to the immigration forms to include a question to that effect? Have they run some kind of poll in the recent past using the Internet to find out? Is it someone's guess, or an educated estimate? Where do they get the numbers which indicate that a pretty narrow range - 16,000 to 20,000 people have lost jobs and returned?
In contrast, I see most of the American statistics are solidly based on data. Take for example a similar theme - the only thing in US that is growing since last year and is still growing upwards - unemployment. There is an entire Beaureu of Labor statistics that is dedicated to the effort of capturing unemployment data. The entire process of survey and data capture is also explained - so it is transparent. I'm not saying all statistics coming from the US is based out of real data. But at least the important ones concerning the large portion of the population mostly is.
These statistic figures are pretty important in everyday life. It sort of gives an indication of what is to come; and making it measurable from time to time also tells us the direction that we are headed. To derive any useful information out of the statistics, the underlying data has to be substantially accurate. So, someone please tell me - where do we get our data from?
Update: Apparently, as this link suggests, even the GDP numbers are not timely nor accurate!
Where have the numbers been pulled out from? The article says "the exact number of people who have returned are not available" and then further quotes "reports which indicate...". I would very much like to know what those reports are and where do those come from? Do they come from the immigration booths at each international airport of India? I doubt that. I cannot imagine the customs officer asking each and every desi looking person the question "did you loose your job abroad" and dutifully recording it. Or are there any recent changes to the immigration forms to include a question to that effect? Have they run some kind of poll in the recent past using the Internet to find out? Is it someone's guess, or an educated estimate? Where do they get the numbers which indicate that a pretty narrow range - 16,000 to 20,000 people have lost jobs and returned?
In contrast, I see most of the American statistics are solidly based on data. Take for example a similar theme - the only thing in US that is growing since last year and is still growing upwards - unemployment. There is an entire Beaureu of Labor statistics that is dedicated to the effort of capturing unemployment data. The entire process of survey and data capture is also explained - so it is transparent. I'm not saying all statistics coming from the US is based out of real data. But at least the important ones concerning the large portion of the population mostly is.
These statistic figures are pretty important in everyday life. It sort of gives an indication of what is to come; and making it measurable from time to time also tells us the direction that we are headed. To derive any useful information out of the statistics, the underlying data has to be substantially accurate. So, someone please tell me - where do we get our data from?
Update: Apparently, as this link suggests, even the GDP numbers are not timely nor accurate!
Labels: data, india, metrics, unemployment
posted by Shreyas | 10:27 PM
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