Treat administrative data as national asset: PK Mishra

New Delhi: India should treat administrative data generated across the country as a strategic national asset to improve policymaking and targeted service delivery, principal secretary to the prime minister PK Mishra said on Monday.

Stressing that the future of governance lies in data-driven decision-making, Mishra called for interoperable and integrated data systems that enable secure sharing of information while safeguarding privacy, security and confidentiality.

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Speaking at the 20th Statistics Day event, he also emphasised the need for strong governance frameworks to address issues of bias and accountability as the country moves towards artificial intelligence (AI)-ready datasets. "If a figure is imputed or nowcast by an AI model, can the statistical system audit it, explain it and own it as it owns a survey result?" Mishra said.

While AI offers transformative opportunities for statistical analysis and policymaking, its adoption must be guided by strong governance frameworks, ensuring that technological innovation strengthens rather than compromises the integrity of official statistics, he said.

The statistical system must uphold the principles of trust, independence and rigour, Mishra said. Trusted and interoperable datasets would provide the foundation for responsible adoption of AI in governance, he said while underscoring the need to simultaneously build human capacity, data literacy and analytical capabilities across institutions.

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"As the centre of gravity shifts towards records that other ministries generate and own, we must consider carefully how that independence is preserved," Mishra said.

"Administrative data must evolve from being a by-product of departmental processes to becoming a strategic national asset," he said, adding that its effective utilisation can improve programme design and targeting, and address critical data gaps.

The data must be "backed by robust standards of quality, privacy and transparency, the need to preserve the credibility and independence of official statistics while embracing new data sources," he said.

"Before we can stand behind such data as we stand behind a survey, we must build the architecture of quality, privacy, and standards that earns public confidence," he said.

Highlighting that the true potential of administrative data will be realised not through technology alone but through robust institutional frameworks that ensure high standards of quality, privacy, transparency and independence, Mishra underscored that the quality of national decision-making depends on the quality and credibility of official statistics.

Stats transformation

On the ongoing transformation of India's statistical system, Mishra said: "The adoption of administrative data represents an expansion of the country's longstanding commitment to inclusive, evidence-based governance."

Stressing that Indian statistical data and methodologies have long been valued by leading international researchers, he said reforms have already led to the introduction of new and user demand-based surveys, updating of macroeconomic indicators, improved data dissemination, and significant procedural and process-oriented reforms, laying the foundation for a more robust, credible and future-ready statistical system.