Mumbai

19 October 2019 21:51 IST

Statistical organisation must change its methods, says Minister

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on Saturday said the methodology employed by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in arriving at employment numbers is outdated.

The former Union Human Resource Development Minister said the NSSO’s methods of arriving at the employment numbers were 70 years old and it gave only one side of the macro picture.

Rejects methodology

There is a need to understand limitations of the organisation’s methodology without totally rejecting its findings, Mr. Javadekar said, adding there is an urgent need for improvement in the NSSO functioning style.

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“If there are four crore persons who have received jobs, they [NSSO] are only studying 4,000, which is a small sample size comparatively. For example, a newspaper may get distributed to 300 to 400 households but if clear mapping is not done on the full reach, the survey will not give a clear picture of the paper’s impact,” said the Minister, speaking at the end of the BJP’s campaign in Maharashtra.

Takes on Manmohan

Rejecting remarks by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this week that the economy needed to grow at 8% to 9% to revive growth, the BJP leader said the economy had actually faltered during Dr. Singh’s tenure as Prime Minister.

While Mr. Singh was a great Finance Minister, he did not make a good Prime Minister and took the country towards an economic mess, the BJP leader said.

“We do not agree with Mr. Singh’s assessment of the Indian economy because under his leadership, the country’s economic forecast was always negative. The country has grown at an average of 7% in the past five years and growth will soon pick up pace again as investments that were to go China will come here,” the Minister said.

Reacting to questions over the dipping GDP growth, the BJP leader said globally the slowdown was affecting economies in Europe and America, while India continued to stay on top as the fastest growing economy.

‘Banks are safe’

“The Congress viewpoint is we are on a negative growth path. But the BJP does not think like that and is confident of a fast recovery. The country’s banks are not closing down and no depositor will lose hard earned money,” he said.

Mr. Javadekar expressed satisfaction over the party’s poll campaign in Maharashtra, and said it was confident of winning a majority along with its alliance partner. The government has worked towards creating social parity and giving reservation to the backward classes.

“We looked at the demands of the Marathas and the Dhangars and worked out a solution. That created a social parity.”