Arvind Panagariya, Chairman, Sixteenth Finance Commission, on Saturday called for a data portal for the data collected by the commission. The official stressed that the execution of a data portal can help make the operations much more efficient and smooth.


Speaking at the 18th Statistics Day event organised by The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the official noted, “Someone needs to take the lead to create a data portal on a permanent basis, so that the work can be smoothened out in the future.”


The Commission head said that each finance commission has to restart the work with data afresh. This problem can be resolved with a data portal, Panagariya pointed out.


Notably, the latest commission was constituted in December last year and member appointments were conducted this year earlier in January.


The Commission is made up of members from the former commission as well, such as former special secretary, Annie George Mathew, former commission’s member, Ajay Narayan Jha, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Executive Director, Artha Global, and Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor, State Bank of India.


Panagariya also launched the e-sankhyiki portal and the Sustainable Development Goals National Indicator Framework report. 


Regarding data dispersal, Saurabh Garg, Secretary, MoSPI, said that the ministry was working towards improving the circulation of information. Garg added, “Surveys have been increasing in number and diversity. On a regular basis, we are looking at systemic improvements to the timely publication of data or deployment of IT tools.”


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The commission is anticipated to decide the devolution formula for states, and also for the local authorities. The earlier finance commission recommended raising the devolution share of states to 41 per cent.


The data portal is expected to help make ministry data accessible. The ministry is liable for conducting surveys and releasing data such as industrial production, unemployment, growth statistics, and inflation.