In an interview with Anoushka Sawhney, he also highlighted new surveys and products planned, including a city-level report for million-plus cities covering unincorporated non-agricultural sector enterprises. Edited excerpts:
With CPI and GDP base revisions done and IIP next, what are MoSPI’s top priorities going forward?
With the revision of key datasets nearing completion, the focus will be on further strengthening the statistical system and expanding the coverage of high-frequency economic indicators. A key priority is the development of an ISP, which would complement the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and provide more timely insights into the services sector.
What is the timeline for launching the ISP?
MoSPI envisages bringing out sectoral and sub-sectoral indices for measuring production of services by exploring conventional administrative records and alternative datasets such as goods and services tax (GST) data, and plans to release trial indices for the various sub-sectors of services in 2026.
A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on ISP was constituted in May 2025 to provide technical guidance for the compilation of sectoral and sub-sectoral ISPs on aspects such as existing best practices, availability of datasets, methodological issues, and approaches to leverage non-traditional data sources. An approach paper elaborating the proposed detailed methodology for compilation of the ISP has been drafted and will soon be placed in the public domain for comments.What new surveys is the ministry planning?
The ministry will conduct the National Household Income Survey, Annual Survey of Incorporated Services Sector Enterprises and Rapid Survey of Functional Cooperatives from April 2026. It is also planning surveys on Common Property Resources in 2026 and Adult Skills in 2027.
The ministry has also planned the release of new products this year, such as a city-level report of selected indicators for cities with a million-plus population (as per Census 2011) for the unincorporated non-agricultural sector enterprises, and the Quarterly Bulletin of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises launched in 2025 will continue in 2026 as well, with more policy-focused indicators added.
What is the roadmap for base year revisions of GDP and IIP at the state/UT level?
MoSPI will organise an all-India workshop in April 2026 to apprise the states/UTs of the methodological changes and improvements introduced in the estimation of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in the new series.
For the estimation of District Domestic Product (DDP), the ministry will soon issue uniform guidelines to the states/UTs.For IIP, MoSPI is at an advanced stage of finalising the methodology for the new base year under the guidance of the TAC.
Sensitisation workshops and technical training programmes are underway, and the updated item basket has already been shared with states/UTs. The immediate focus is on the regular and timely compilation and release of state/UT-level IIP on a monthly basis.
As India prepares for the BRICS presidency, what role will MoSPI play?
India will hold the BRICS 2026 Presidency, and MoSPI will coordinate the organisation of the BRICS 2026 Statistics Track. The theme for the Statistics Track, “Quality Statistics as a Driver of Change,” aligns with the overall BRICS 2026 theme, “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.”
Under the Statistics Track, two two-day meetings are planned: a Technical Meeting of NSOs (two days), tentatively in April/May 2026, and a Meeting of Heads of NSOs (two days), tentatively in August 2026. The side events proposed tentatively for the period June-August 2026 will be organised with participation from private organisations to showcase India’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced technologies in strengthening statistical systems.
After the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server rollout, what are the next AI milestones for MoSPI?
The ministry has launched the Data Innovation Lab Initiative to explore various innovative ideas at different stages of the data lifecycle of official statistics. So far, 12 use cases have been identified, of which six are already deployed and at the beta stage. The ministry is also actively engaging with industry, start-ups and academia to ensure seamless execution of projects under this initiative.
The MCP server allows users to connect directly with datasets through their own AI tools. The beta version includes seven data products, including the Periodic Labour Force Survey, CPI, Annual Survey of Industries, IIP, National Account Statistics, Wholesale Price Index and Environmental Statistics, with more to be added in the coming months. MoSPI also plans to onboard datasets from other ministries/departments on the eSankhyiki platform through APIs and aims to add 20 products with 10 indicators each per year from the Compendium of Datasets and Registries.
What steps has MoSPI taken to harmonise data standards across states and ministries?
Measures to improve data quality, transparency, metadata management and standardisation include the circulation of the National Metadata Structure (NMDS 2.0) to states/UTs (June 2025) to ensure uniform metadata reporting; the introduction of 19 principles and 85 requirements under the Statistical Quality Assessment Framework (SQAF); the issuance of Operational Guidelines for official statistics across the data lifecycle (September 2025); and the establishment of an institutional mechanism for reconciliation of divergent datasets.
States/UTs and ministries have been advised to publish their Advance Release Calendars (ARCs) annually by November. These initiatives will continue to strengthen standardisation and transparency.