States Holding Up Results of Economic Census : Centre : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Key Phrases: Seventh Economic Census, Economic Census and Surveys, Valuable Insights into Geographical Spread, Updated Sampling Frame for Follow-up Enterprise Surveys, Dynamic Statistical Business Register, India’s economic landscape

Why in News?

The Centre has blamed the States for a prolonged delay in releasing the findings of the Seventh Economic Census, a critical compilation of formal and informal non-farm enterprises operating across the country.

What is the Economic Census?

Economic Census is the complete count of all establishments located within the geographical boundary of India.
The Economic Census provides disaggregated information on various operational and structural variables of all establishments in the country.
It provides detailed information on operational and other characteristics such as number of establishments, number of persons employed, source of finance, type of ownership etc.
The EC is conducted every five years, which also captures the employment creation by each firm, their ownership pattern, and sources of finance at a granular level.

History of the Economic Census:

In 1976, the Government of India launched a planning scheme called “Economic Census and Surveys”.
In 1977, Central Statistical Organization conducted the first economic census in collaboration with the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DES) in the States/Union Territories.

Why an Economic Census?

Economic Census gives a detailed account of the state of the economy, prospects and policy challenges.
It carries sectoral overviews and comments on reform measures that are required.
The survey’s outlook serves as a marker of future policy moves.

Significance of Economic census:

It provides valuable insights into geographical spread/clusters of economic activities, ownership patterns, persons engaged, etc. of all economic establishments in the country.
All this information is very important for policymakers in the government at all levels for evolving policy interventions.
It also provides an updated sampling frame for follow-up enterprise surveys undertaken for detailed and comprehensive analysis of all establishments in the country.

The Economic Census serves the following requirements:

A nation-wide Dynamic Statistical Business Register as per international practices adopted by developing countries and in line with the UNSD recommendations.
Detailed information on economic variables, activity-wise, of all the non-agricultural establishments of the country including its distribution at all India, State, District, Village/Ward levels for comprehensive analysis of the structure of the economy.
Information on establishments registered under the MSME Development Act, their assets and other economic criteria.
Information on the number of workers in establishments (which are under operation), activity-wise and area-wise.
List of all establishments, tagged by geographical location up to village/ward level for local-level planning purposes.

7th economic census:

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has tied up with CSC e-Governance Service for the 7th Economic Census.
For the first time, the entire Census is being conducted on a digital platform by the use of an application that will ensure high accuracy and data security.
The application will ensure that there is no data breach.
The data is stored in the cloud and no one can access it without permission.
Field work for the Seventh EC, which had deployed IT-enabled tools for the first time to facilitate real-time data analytics, had begun in July 2019.
The approval of provisional results of the 7th EC at the State level is the mandate of State Level Coordination Committee constituted under the chairpersonship of the Chief Secretary of State/UTs.
The latest EC is expected to capture the changes in India’s economic landscape since the implementation of policy shifts such as demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax and paring of corporate taxes.
The government has planned to use the 7th EC data to create a Statistical Business Register(SBR) that can be tapped to obtain critical inputs on business demography for policy interventions by government agencies at the Central and State levels.
The EC database may also provide insights into evolving nature of entrepreneurship; corresponding skilling requirements, employment potential, etc.
Future economic censuses are expected to update the SBR.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What is the economic Census? Examine its relevance and the role it plays in evolving better policy interventions for the governance of the country (250 words).