Govt working to improve data credibility, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government is focusing on improving data credibility amid concerns over computing methodologies for various macro-economic data.

The aspects which are being looked at include Gross Domestic Product (GDP), inflation and employment, she said.

The comments come months after the government has been accused of adopting faulty data computation methodologies which may throw up convenient conclusions.

A group of over 100 economists had publicly written against such tendencies earlier this year.

"Data is something which the government has been looking at ... and making sure that any misgivings about the data will be addressed so that data from the government irrespective of whatever it reflects is going to be credible for people to accept," she said, addressing the India Economic Conclave organised by Times Network through video conferencing.

She said the National Statistical Commission and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation are among the government agencies that are working on this aspect of data.

"On the numbers, there is a lot of work going on," she said.

The minister, however, said that on unemployment, the government's measure on jobs is not as good because of the informal sector.

It can be noted that recently, the government's official data had revealed unemployment to be at a four decade high.