National Statistical Commission | 19 Feb 2020

Recently the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the draft National Statistical Commission (NSC) Bill in public domain for feedback.
The Bill seeks to establish NSC as the nodal, autonomous and statutory body for all core statistical activities. It also proposes the NSC to be a body corporate. The current body lacks statutory backing.
Formation: The Government of India through a resolution dated 1^st June, 2005 set up the National Statistical Commission (NSC), on the recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission, which reviewed the Indian Statistical System in 2001.
Present Status of the NSC :
- Composition : It has a part-time Chairperson, 4 part-time Members and an ex-officio Member, each having specialization and experience in specified statistical fields.
- The Chief Statistician of India is the Secretary of the Commission.
- He is also the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
- Mandate: To evolve policies, priorities and standards in statistical matters.
  - To improve the data quality in the statistical products and processes and work closely with the statistical agencies in the central and state government to ensure its implementation.
  - The NSC is a recommending body that helps the national statistical system in evolving better strategies to improve the functioning of the system.