The Government of India attaches the highest priority to job creation. India suffers from a lack of reliable, timely data on employment which has made it difficult for policymakers and independent observers to assess the extent of employment generation at different points of time. Some data is collected and published by certain agencies including the Labour Bureau, but the coverage is very small. The Labour Bureau data covers only a few sectors and the methodology is not based on an updated panel of survey respondents. The net result has been that both policy making and analysis are conducted in a data vacuum.
In view of the importance of timely and reliable data on employment, the Prime Minister has directed the Prime Minister’s Office and concerned Ministries to come up with a solution to fill this long-standing gap in the country’s statistical architecture. Accordingly, a task force has been created under the chairmanship of the Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog Dr. Arvind Panagriya with Labour Secretary Ms. Sathiyavathy, Secretary Statistics Dr. T.C.A. Ananth, Prof. Pulak Ghosh of NITI Aayog and Shri Manish Sabharwal (Member RBI Board) as members. The Task Force will recommend solutions which can be implemented in a time-bound manner. The Prime Minister has directed that this task is expedited so that policies on employment can be formulated with a proper appreciation of impacts, based on credible data.
