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Kolkata: Economist Surjit S Bhalla has been selected by the government to head a technical expert group that would advise the government on an income distribution survey tentatively supposed to be carried out next year. A statement from the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said that the group will help the National Statistics Office towards conducting an all-India income distribution survey.
Apart from Bhalla, other members of the expert group are former professor of Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, Aloke Kar; National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi expert Sonalde Desai; Centre for Economic Studies and Planning JNU professor Praveen Jha; School of Economics, University of Hyderabad professor Srijit Mishra; chief economist, National Stock Exchange of India expert Tirthankar Patnaik; MD & CEO, People Research on India's Consumer Economy Rajesh Shukla and Ram Singh, director, Delhi School of Economics.
Former executive director of India, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bhalla will help in finalising concepts and definitions, the method in which to carry out this significant survey, the instruments to be adopted, sampling design, estimation methods as well as brining the global best practices to be table.
The survey will also try to understand and assess the impact of technology adoption on household income. If needed the group is free to seek help on different topics within the ranks of the government as well as outside and can co-opt them as members. The group can also decide to have special invitees if the situation so demands.
The National Sample Survey is recognised for the scale and scope of the household surveys it conducts. The first survey was carried out way back in a young nation in 1950 and since then the data collated from these surveys have provided great value and insights to economic policy making. But NSS is yet to carry out a comprehensive full-fledged survey on income distribution which can be of great value in these times.
The MoSPI tried to collect data on household income along with the consumer expenditure surveys in the 1950s but those reports were not published. Such exercises were undertaken in the 1960s and 1980s but a proper pan-Indian survey could not be accomplished. Therefore, the latest endeavour could be of great significance to economic policymaking in India.
