Estimates say finances to go 268% more than Plan allocation.
The sixth national economic census, set to take off next year, may have to struggle for funds as the initial estimates of the ministry put the fund requirement at Rs 700 crore, 268 per cent more than the Plan allocation of Rs 190 crore.
Ministry officials say the massive increase in the cost estimate for conducting the survey is due to the lack of data investigators, who are employed on a contract basis for the survey. The economic census is also going to coincide with the population census conducted by the Registrar General of India and the Below Poverty Line (BPL) census to be conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development.
“To attract qualified people for the census, we need to pay them at a scale in which the Registrar General is giving and that is what has pushed up the estimate. Human resource continues to be the major hurdle for conducting all surveys”, said a Mospi official requesting anonymity.
The proposal stating the specifics of the census and details about the process of implementation has been sent to the planning commission, which will decide on revising the funding of the census operations.
“The plan allocation is too less for the census to be implemented but then there are other census, which need to be funded at that time so funding is an issue”, said a Planning Commission official requesting anonymity.
The census, which will be undertaken by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (Mospi) will also create and maintain an Indian National Business Register (NBR) or directory. The business register is being seen as an essential exercise by the ministry as it will act as an important economic data framework for various other statistical surveys, including the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) and others of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).
The business register is to keep an account of all business establishments with a workforce of 10 or more people – addresses, sectors, turnovers, number of people employed, et al. The move is similar to that taken for the National Population Census 2010-11, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which will also collect data for a National Population Register (NPR). Just as the NPR will record the name and address of every individual in the country, the NBR will have a record of every business establishment in the country.
An attempt was made during the previous economic census in 2005 to create a directory or register of business enterprises, but it could not succeed due to gaps in data collection during the operations. The initiative during the sixth economic census may also be marred due to lack of qualified data investigators. Most of the data collection for the population census, supposedly the most reliable one in India, is carried out by school teachers. However a Supreme Court directive prevents the use of school teachers for other census operations.
“The best people to collect data for any census are the school teachers and for our census, we cannot use them”, regretted another Mospi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This leads to hiring of people on a contractual basis, who leave gaps during data collection. We are also not optimistic of getting enough funds to be able to afford an extensive infrastructure for this census”, added another Mospi official.
