Policymakers must use alternative data sources

Alternative data sources arising as the "byproduct of everyday digital interactions" can help policymakers in providing "proactive intervention" for economic growth, said V Anantha Nageswaran, India's chief economic advisor, on Thursday.

- SHIVA RAJORA

"It is important to note that the value of alternate data is not in its volume or novelty, but in the distinctive lens it offers," he said at the National Workshop on Alternate Data Sources and Frontier Technologies for Policy Making. The two-day event in New Delhi is organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).

"These data sources enable policymakers to move from retrospective diagnostics to proactive intervention. It captures emergent behaviour and reflects the lived experience of economic agents that conventional aggregates sometimes cannot."