Govt appoints GP Samanta as new Chief statistician of India for two years
Samanta will replace 1986-batch civil servant Kshatrapati Shivaji who was holding additional charge of the post since September 2020
The government has approved the name of Dr GP Samanta to the post of chief statistician of India for a period of two years. Samanta is currently serving as an advisor in the Reserve Bank of India’s Department of Statistics and Information Management, a prepared Department of Personnel and Training notification reviewed by Mint said.
He will replace 1986-batch civil servant Kshatrapati Shivaji who was holding additional charge of the post since September 2020.
Samanta who will also serve as the secretary in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has been given a tenure of two years. He holds a Master of Statistics degree from Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and a PhD in Economics from the University of Mumbai.
Samanta is taking charge as the chief statistician of India at a time India’s statistical system has faced criticism from several quarters due to lack of transparency in data including withdrawal of the latest consumption expenditure survey (CES) 2017-18.
The absence of consumption data not only makes it difficult to measure poverty, but also to reevaluate weights of inflation indices. In a report released last year, the World Bank had said the decision of the government not to release the 75th round of the CES leaves an important gap in understanding poverty in India, South Asia, and the world in recent years. Mint reported on 28 January that a new CES is expected to be conducted this year with a revised methodology at a time when the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be reviewing the inflation targeting framework.
The new chief statistician will also be in charge of formulating the National Policy on Official Statistics which is under preparation.
“This Ministry formulated a Draft National Policy on Official Statistics based on the recommendations of the National Statistical Commission and the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. The draft was uploaded on the website of the Ministry and also circulated to the Ministries for comments and suggestions. The comments have been examined for inclusion in the revised draft, as per due process," statistics minister Rao Inderjit Singh told Lok Sabha in last year.
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