TCA Anant has been appointed as the Chief Statistician of India (CSI), with concurrent charge as the secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). He will take over from Pronab Sen, who was appointed as the first CSI on February 21, 2007, for three years.
Sen’s tenure, which came to an end in February, was extended till May 20 till the appointment of a successor. Sen, during whose tenure efforts were made to make statistics more timely and relevant, is expected to go back to the Perspective Planning division of the Planning Commission. The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), under Sen, over the last year revised the base year for national accounts and was in the process of changing base years for price and industry indices.
Anant’s appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The appointment will be for five years from the date of assumption of charge of the post. The change is happening at a time when macro-economic indicators are closely watched within and outside the government.
Anant, presently a professor of economics at the Delhi School of Economics (Delhi University), has served as member-secretary of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, funding organisation of the Central government. His research work has spanned a wide range of areas from game theory, industrial organisation and environmental economics to the interface between law and economics. He is also a member of the advisory committee on regulations under the Competition Commission of India.
In recent months, the United Progressive Alliance government recruited two other economists from outside the government system to take charge of key positions. Cornell University professor Kaushik Basu took charge on December 8, 2009, as the chief economic advisor in the ministry of finance, in close succession to Subir Gokarn, chief Asia Pacific economist, Standard & Poor’s, who took over as the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India on November 24, 2009.
Anant has also been associated as a resource person for projects sponsored by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organisation. In this capacity, he has been associated with the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, and participated in the first Retreat for Supreme Court Judges held in July 2005. He has also been a member of the Academic Council of the National Law University, Jodhpur since its inception.
The Chief Statistician of India is a post specifically created to head the National Statistical Office after the establishment of the National Statistical Commission, in line with the recommendations of a commission, chaired by C Rangarajan, to review Indian statistical system.
