ACTIVITIES AS MINISTER OF STATISTICS&PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

7/7/2006
Shri G.K.Vasan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Statistics and Programme Implementation has urged the State Government of Kerala and the District authorities to pay immediate attention to the Tsunami rehabilitation works with the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds of Rs.223 lakh, contributed by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs for the Tsunami affected areas of the State. He was speaking while reviewing the progress in implementation of MPLADS at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala today.

The Minister informed that Kerala has received Rs.519.95 crore since inception of the Scheme in 1993-94 and Rs.455.05 crore has so far been spent by the State for various developmental activities. In terms of works completion, he added that out of 17159 works sanctioned, 14121 works have been completed so far. With an unspent balance of Rs.91.70 crore available with the district authorities, and Rs.111 crore yet to be released by the Government of India, he expressed hope that efficient use of funds of about Rs.200 crore during the current financial year would help in creating durable community infrastructures and improve the quality of life of the people at large. He also expressed hope that with the Review Committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary taking up periodical monitoring, the overall implementation of the Scheme will show significant improvement.




12/4/2007

Union Minister for Statistics & Programme Implementation, Shri G. K. Vasan today called upon the Statisticians to develop a strong data base on various socio-economic parameters to help the Central and State Governments in developing planning and policy formulation. Inaugurating the two-day Conference of Central and State Statistical Organization on "Training of Trainers" for 64th Round of National Sample Survey he said Core Statistics critical to the development of economy should be identified to evolve national policies and priorities relating to the statistical system.

He said the Statistical system is being re-engineered to produce reliable and timely data on all important aspects to guide the development strategy. Statistical advice has more reliable and timely solutions than committee of experts. To formulate effective policies and programmes for eliminating poverty, the Statistical System need to provide reliable data base for estimating the incidence of poverty in different regions, he said.

Mr. Vasan said the subjects for 64th Round have been picked up keeping in mind the priorities of Government and objectives of the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Beginning from 1st July, 2007, the National Sample Survey would cover expenditure in education, migration, employment & unemployment and consumer expenditure. The subjects would provide sound data base for taking evidence based policy decisions in these critical sectors in conjunction with the objectives and priorities of the Central Government.

FEB29,2007

Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has stressed the role of statistics as the country progresses in the path of development towards becoming a knowledge economy, and as we integrate with the international economic order.

In his address after inaugurating the Statistics Day celebrations, here today, he pointed out that in such a situation, the hallmark of a country's reputation will be the credibility and transparency of its statistical system. Referring to the National Statistical Commission set up by the Government last year towards this end, Dr. Singh observed that two aspects of its mandate are of particular importance.

"The first is to evolve and lay down national quality standards in different areas of statistics; and the second is to exercise statistical coordination between Ministries, Departments and State Governments", he added.

The Prime Minister appealed to all concerned to extend full cooperation to the National Statistical Commission and to actively seek its assistance in improving our statistical data bases. Stating that we should all be proud of our collective heritage in the field of statistics and resolve to take our country to the pinnacle of this discipline, Dr. Singh expressed hope that young statisticians from India will continue to lead the world in theoretical and applied statistics, and bring a further sense of pride and accomplishment to our Nation.

The Prime Minister paid glorious tribute to Late Prof. P.C. Mahalonobis for his pioneering contributions in a wide range of areas including anthropology, educational testing, statistical quality control, agriculture, flood control, meteorology and for institution building. Paying homage to the memory of Professor Mahalanobis, the Minister for Statistics Shri G.K. Vasan said Professor Mahalanobis is the builder of modern statistical system in India. His contributions to the development of statistics as a science are fundamental and well recognised all over the world.

The Government of India has declared 29th June of each year as Statistics Day to be celebrated as a special day at the national level. Statistics Day is meant to give recognition to the contribution of Statistics and of Indian statisticians to the development of the country. It is being held on 29th June, the birth anniversary of Professor P.C. Mahalanobis, the doyen of Indian statistics, to pay tribute to the multi-faceted contributions of Professor Mahalanobis; as a scholar and academician, as an institution builder, and as a pioneer in the application of statistics to development issues.

In the Technical Session following the Inaugural Session, Professor Suresh Tendulkar, Chairman, National Statistical Commission, will deliver a memorial address, which was followed by a documentary film on Professor Mahalanobis prepared by the Indian Statistical Institute.

The key-note address was delivered by Dr. I.P. David, an internationally reputed statistician from the Philippines, who is this years winner of the international Professor Mahalanobis Award. Dr. David is well-known as an expert on issues of poverty measurement, among his other qualifications.

Shri G.K. Vasan, MOS, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, confered the National Award in Statistics for Young Statisticians in honour of Professor C.R. Rao for the year 2006-07 on Dr. Ayanendranath Basu of ISI, Kolkata. Dr. Basu is not only a well-known theoretical statistician, he has also done fundamental work on measuring the spread of HIV. Dr. Basu will deliver a lecture on this occasion.

Shri Vasan will also distribute prizes to eleven post-graduate students who have won the Essay Competition organized in memory of Professor Mahalanobis by CSO
2/2/2006



2/2/2006
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation will take up phase-to-phase monitoring of all central schemes and if required schemes will be further streamlined in consultation with concerned Ministries for timely implementation. Expressing concern over delay in implementation of the welfare schemes in some States, Shri G.K. Vasan, newly appointed Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation said that it would be his utmost priority to see that the benefits of the schemes reaches upto the block level. He added that he would not allow any lackness in the implementation of the schemes specially those of Rs. 20 crore and above.

Replying queries of media persons about ‘MP LED’ scheme, Shri Vasan said that he would have detailed discussions with all concerned for amendment in the scheme. After taking over here today as a Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation Shri Vasan had meeting with the senior officials of the Ministry and reviewed functioning and schemes of the Ministry.
SEPT 7,2006

Shri. G .K. Vasan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, today released the results of the Survey on Well- being of Children and Women for 43 districts of the country. Speaking on the occasion, he said that planning can not have a top-down approach. The answer to problems is decentralized planning and 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments on empowerment of panchayatas is a step in this direction. He said the nation was committed to achieve goals and targets set out in the millennium development goals. A large proportion of these goals and targets relate to the well being of children and women. He said it was no more relevant to discuss the status of children and women at the country level or even at state level. Going down to district level and below was required for making a meaningful intervention for improvement in the situation. .

As part of Government of India (GOI) and UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation Cycle of 2003-07, the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) of Government of India conducted the Baseline Survey on Well-being of Children and Women in the rural areas of 43 focal districts in 14 States of the country. The data for the survey was collected during March to May, 2005. The Baseline Survey had the objective of collecting quality information on key indicators relating to the well-being of children and women in these focal districts. The survey covered a wide range of topics namely, village infrastructure and service facilities viz. sanitation, hygiene and drinking water, health of children and mothers, schooling and educational attainment of children, especially of girl's education, child protection and knowledge, aptitude and practices about RTI/STI and HIV/AIDS.

Some key indicators provided in the report for the district of Medak in Andhra Pradesh- Only 26 percent of the households use some kind of toilet facilities, the immunization rate is about 70 percent, only about 45 percent births are registered, about one-fifth of the girls aged 5-14 years are not attending school and about 59 percent births occur in institutions.

The data for all the 43 districts, show that the disparities are striking. While in district Gaya of Bihar and district Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh only 5 percent children were fully immunized, whereas in Tumkur district of Karnataka the level has reached more than 90 percent. Again within Karnataka, Raichur district could fully immunize only 23 percent of its children. In district West Singhbhum of Jharkhand, Dangs of Gujarat, and Koraput of Orissa, all tribal districts, less than 10 percent deliveries occur in institutions. The percentage of institutional deliveries is as high as 84 percent in district Tiruvellore of Tamil Nadu. In Tonk district of Rajasthan, the percentage of women married before age 18 is about 80 percent, while on the other side in Dibrugarh of Assam, only 13 percent women are married before reaching their legal age. These data sets give us the opportunity to target interventions more meaningfully rather than spreading efforts and resources uniformly and thinly.
25/9/2008

The Minister for Statistics & Programme Implementation, Shri G.K. Vasan said today that efforts should be intensified for improvement of quality of data so as to enhance its usefulness and credibility. Inaugurating a two-day seminar on the results of 62nd round of NSS, he said regular research, seminars and public debate should be undertaken for this purpose.

With planning being decentralized at district level, demands for sub-State level information are on the rise. The State Governments as well as local governments are today more interested in such estimates for planning at district level. He said the department of statistics needs to explore possibility of pooling data of Central sample and State sample so as to provide reliable estimates at local level.

He said information regarding participation in public works collected first time for persons in the age group of 15 years and above in rural areas have revealed that:

• According to the usual status, about 56 per cent of rural males and 31 per cent or rural females belonged to the labour force.

• The corresponding proportions in the urban areas were 57 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

• Unemployment rate in the rural areas was around 2 per cent (for male nearly 3 per cent and for female nearly 2 per cent).

• In urban areas the unemployment rate was 5 per cent (for male nearly 5 per cent and for female nearly 8 per cent).

• In rural India, more than half of the usually employed were self-employed – 57 per cent among males and nearly 62 per cent among female.

• The corresponding figures in urban India were 42 for male and 44 for female.

• The percentage of regular wage/salaried employees was relatively lower among females as compared to males in both rural and urban India.

• The proportion of female casual labourers was about 1 percentage point higher than that of male casual labourers in both rural and urban areas.

• The rate of under-employment was found higher in rural than urban, and higher for female than for male under the three approximations.

The main objective of the survey on “Household Consumer Expenditure in India” was to collect the data on commodity-specific information on 148 items of food, 13 items of fuel, 28 items of clothing, bedding and footwear, 18 items of educational and medical expenses, 52 items of durable goods, and about 85 other items:

• In 2005-06, nearly 19 per cent of the Indian rural population belonged to households with monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) less than Rs.365 that is, spending less than Rs.12 per person per day on consumption, at 2005-06 prices.

• In urban India, 22 per cent of the population belonged to households with monthly per capita expenditure less than Rs.580 (about Rs.19 per person per day).

• Out of every rupee spent in 2005-06, 53 paise and 40 paise was spent on food respectively by rural and urban households.

The main objective of the survey on “Unorganized Manufacturing Enterprises” was to collect the information on estimated number of enterprises and number of workers. The survey provides information on operational characteristics of the enterprises like location of enterprise, maintenance of accounts, number of working hours, nature of operation etc. at all India level for different industry groups and at the level of States / UTs for all the industry groups together. Major findings of the survey are:

a. An estimated 17.07 million unorganized manufacturing enterprises were in operation in India during 2005-06.

b. Of the total enterprises estimated, 71 per cent were in rural India and 29 per cent in urban India.

c. Own Account, Manufacturing Enterprises (OAME) constituted 86 per cent of all enterprises and the remaining 14 per cent were establishments.

d. About 36.44 million persons were estimated to be working in unorganized manufacturing enterprises during 2005-06.

e. The number of workers per enterprise was about 2.13.
SEPTEMBER2008

STATES NEED TO MODERNIZE STATISTICAL SYSTEM TO MATCH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS : VASAN

13:39 IST

The Minister for Statistics & Programme Implementation Mr. G.K. Vasan today called for strengthening the data collection mechanism in the country. He said the Central initiatives aimed at giving needed stability & credibility to the system would bear fruit only similar steps are taken in the States. Speaking at the National Conference of State Level Ministers In-charge of Statistics here today, he said the Central Government was considering a proposal for States Statistical System through a centrally sponsored scheme in the Eleventh Plan at an estimated cost of Rs.705 crores.

He said in the decentralized statistical system, National Statistics in many cases are derived from State level. Therefore as a need for States to have separate department of statistics and also a strong statistical machinery at local levels, Mr. Vasan appealed to the State Governments to consider setting up a Statistical Commission to oversee their systems and assist the National Commission in realizing common objectives.

He said to strengthen data collection in this country, the Union Government has introduced the collection of Statistics Bill, 2007 to replace the collection of statistics at 1953 to significantly facilitate data collection at all levels of government.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Suresh Tendulkar, Chairman National Statistical Commission said that the official statistics provide crucial indicators of the functioning of the society and the economy and hence act as an important instrument of good governance in a democratic society. Persistence of data gaps is a drag on the formulation of appropriate policies. The country needs a statistical system that is commensurate with the needs of vibrant democratic society and the fast growing economy in the 21st Century.

The National Conference would deliberate on important issues related to strengthening of statistical system which includes imparting independence and impartiality to official statistics, improving horizontal and vertical coordination of statistical activities across departments, institutional strengthening of State Statistical System and development of local panchayat raj level statistics and its integration with the State Statistical System for local level development.