Leveraging data for Viksit Bharat goals: MoSPI secretary

For India to achieve 8% growth and attain the status of a ‘Viksit Bharat’, it is crucial to leverage data for policy decisions, said Saurabh Garg, secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday.

“One key area of focus should be administrative statistics,” he said while speaking at the Second round of sensitization and review meeting of Statistical Advisers in Central Ministries and Departments.

Each ministry holds valuable datasets that are not being adequately leveraged, the secretary said. Every ministry has a Data and Strategy Unit, with statistical advisors to ensure the accessibility and standardisation of data.


The ministry is working on centralising data on welfare schemes across centre and states to ensure data availability and quality.

Additionally, the secretary highlighted the need for e-commerce data.

“We don’t want to scrape data, it should be legally accessible to us,” he added.

NITI Aayog CEO, B.V.R Subrahmanyam also emphasised the importance of data-driven decision making, highlighting that a majority of decisions without impact assessment.

“Targets have to be monitored and analysed across different geographies and regions. Data is required to identify opportunities and challenges, and no ministry can function effectively without it,” he added.

He also spoke about collaborating with the secretary on ‘Business Statistics’, noting that a significant amount of data is being generated in the commercial sector, which needs to be captured and utilised.