Rao Inderjit Singh admitted that the government is aware of shortcomings in its data collection

• Rao Inderjit Singh admitted that the government is aware of shortcomings in its data collection.
  
  
• Singh was responding to a question by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor who said that India is facing a crisis of statistics.
  
  
• The government withdrew a survey conducted by National Statistical Office on consumer expenditure.
  

In a rather lively discussion in the Lok Sabha’s winter session of the Parliament today, the minister of state for programme implementation Rao Inderjit Singh admitted to something few thought government would—the accuracy of data it releases.

“The government is aware of shortcomings in its data collection,” Singh said in response to Thiruvanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor’s question.

According to the Congress MP Tharoor, India is facing a crisis of statistics. His comments came after the government decided to withdraw a survey conducted by National Statistical Office on consumer expenditure.

The reason why the government chose to sweep the survey under the carpet is understandable. As per the survey, household consumption fell to ₹1,446 in 2017-18 which was at ₹1,501 six years back. Adding the component of inflation, the data shows that Indian homes are getting much frugal in a way that is affecting their quality of life.

Show me the data!

But this survey came to light only after newspaper Business Standard published the report which was never officially released. Later, the government withdrew the survey, leading Tharoor to question the government's intent and credibility.

It has become a common for the Modi government to suppress data as the Prime Minister spends most of his time painting a colourful picture. Earlier this year too, the government had hid another survey by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). As per the survey, Indian unemployment rate was at 45 year high at 6.1% in 2017-18 and was published by Business Standard in March this year. This periodic labour force (PLF) study was withheld and released after general elections in May.