Pravin Srivastava appointed as India's third Chief Statistician

Pravin Srivastava appointment would take effect from the date of assumption of charge by him, said an official statement

Eight months after TCA Anant demitted office, the government has appointed 58-year-old Pravin Srivastava, a senior officer with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), chief statistician of India (CSI).

Srivastava’s tenure will be a little less than two years, till August 31, 2020. 

His appointment would take effect from the date of assumption of charge by him, said an official statement. 

The 1983-batch Indian Statistical Service officer has worked in the ministries of statistics and health in various positions, and briefly in the Union Public Service Commission, in his 35-year career. He was a secretary to the Indian Statistical Commission, popularly known as the Rangarajan Commission, which laid the foundation of the modern statistical system. The National Statistical Commission was set up in 2005 on its recommendations. 

In his latest stint, he worked as additional director general in the national accounts division of the MoSPI.

“Three surveys, two covering the services sector and unincorporated enterprises, and a time-use survey, which we are doing for the first time, and the 7th economic census are the immediate projects before us, and the resources we have are quite significant,” he told Business Standard.

The CSI takes up the mantle to generate the most important data in India, namely the estimation of gross domestic product (GDP) and retail inflation. Both are the key to a country’s economic progress, and to politics as well. Also, the much-awaited annual and quarterly job surveys will be out any time now. 

Apart from macroeconomic data, there is the economic census, the annual survey of industries, and surveys on health, agricultural households, and consumption spending of Indians, for which the CSI is the point person.

The CSI also assumes the charge of secretary at the statistics ministry. 

Anant retired in January 2018 after seven years as the CSI. The government had put out advertisements for filling up the post in February. While the full-time post was vacant, K V Eapen, secretary at the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and Pensions and Pensioners Welfare, had taken the additional charge as secretary, MoSPI.

Now at the helm of generating key data that define India, Srivastava graduated from the Lucknow University with a Masters in mathematical statistics in the early 1980s.

After his induction in the country's statistical service, he enlivened his academic inclinations while in office by pursuing masters in development studies from the UK, and a post-graduate course involving economics, statistics and management from Management Development Institute in Gurugram near Delhi.

He was then transferred to the UPSC as a deputy secretary and subsequently at the level of joint secretary. But he remembers the stint that followed, in the ministry of health, quite vividly, he said.

He was part of the team that conceived the annual health surveys, which were later carried out by the census office. He also helped develop the health management information system (HMIS) of the ministry of health, back in the day.

Later, stationed in Bhopal, he coordinated the implementation work for National Sample Survey Office, and worked on the consumption expenditure and employment surveys.

He was instrumental in launching a key project in the labour ministry, the National Career Service, where all the employment exchanges and portals were linked to form a common portal. After this he joined MoSPI, his in-profession alma mater, in April 2017.

There has been a talk around improving India's statistical system and adapting it firmly to the advances in technology, for a long time. Srivastava assisted the then director general at the ministry in drafting the National Policy on Official Statistics.

With his taking up of the CSI post, the only non-political key post that remains to be filled is that of the chief economic advisor.