Shillong, June 06: Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation D.V.Sadanand Gowda today interacted with journalists from Meghalaya through a video conference.
Journalists from Meghalaya sat at the NIC Shillong and interacted with the Minister from National Media Centre, New Delhi.
While interacting with the journalists from Shillong, the Minister expressed his satisfaction over the implementation of various centre sponsored schemes in Meghalaya.
Journalists from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Raipur, Kochi and Chennai took part in the video conference.
During the interaction, the Minister highlighted the three-year achievements of the Central Government and presented an exhaustive list of initiatives and achievements during the last three years.
Gowda said that the adoption of UNFPOS (United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics) has helped in bringing professional independence, impartiality, accountability and transparency in methods of collection, compilation and dissemination of official statistics, besides fulfilling international commitment.
On National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), he said that the organisation which came into existence in 1950 with the objective of conducting large-scale surveys to provide data required for planning and policy formation, has since grown into one of the largest organisations of its kind.
“Results based on surveys of NSSO on socio-economic subjects are extensively used by the Central Ministries/departments, State governments and other Governmental agencies in policy formulation. These results are frequently used by the researchers, academia and journalists as well”, he said.
The minister said that his ministry has adopted several initiatives for use of technology in data collection and dissemination. With a view to replace the use of paper for data collection by hand-held devices and reduce time lag in release of results of the survey, the NSSO has developed a Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) solution with technical assistance from the World Bank (WB).
He also recalled that the NSSO has undertaken the work of digitisation of Urban Frame Survey (UFS) maps in collaboration with NIC and the National Remote Sensing Centre.
The minister also said that the Ministry has organised 85 training/ programmes/ workshops in the last three years for the statistical personnel of the State/UT to strengthen their technical capabilities and to apprise them of the developments in the field of official statistics. The Ministry has been making all efforts towards e-governance, standardization of procedures and undertaking holistic review of statistical products being produced and disseminated.
Moreover, the Minister said that there has been many positive modifications in their implementation which are intended to imbibe systemic improvements in the design and implementation of the scheme and to ensure optimum utilization of Government funds.
