Give statutory authority to National Statistical Commission: Parliamentary Panel

A Parliamentary panel on Tuesday stressed the need for a strong, independent National Statistical Commission (NSC) with statutory authority to ensure credibility of official statistics.

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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, in its 27th Report on 'Performance review of NSC' pertaining to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, noted that discrepancies between official and private data undermine trust due to a lack of uniform standards. The panel has recommended empowering the NSC as the nodal body to prescribe methodologies, harmonise data practices, and involve private agencies and experts through a permanent technical committee. Suggesting a provision of statutory authority to NSC and empowering it as the nodal national body for statistics, it said, "The Committee stressed the need for a strong, independent National