Overview
- Dr. P K Mishra delivered a keynote at MoSPI's Conference of State Planning, Finance and IT Secretaries on Tuesday calling for a coordinated national effort to modernize how India measures its economy and society.
- He urged MoSPI, state statistical offices, NITI Aayog, state finance and planning departments and academia to work together to produce timely, state- and district-level indicators that guide policy decisions.
- Mishra framed recent technical changes—the rebased National Accounts Series (base 2022–23) and revised CPI and IIP series—as necessary steps but said they are not enough without better systems, tools and governance.
- He highlighted the promise of AI, machine learning, geospatial data and satellite imagery to speed and sharpen statistics and cautioned that speed must not sacrifice accuracy or the confidentiality of individual data.
- The government announced no new laws or funding at the conference; the current phase focuses on policy coordination, capacity building at state level, interoperability of data systems and rules to protect quality and privacy.