The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) commemorated the 20^th Statistics Day on 29th June 2026 at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi. The Statistics Day is celebrated annually in honour of the birth anniversary of Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis who was the architect of India's modern statistical system and a pioneer in economic planning.

The theme for this year’s Statistics Day was, “Unlocking the Potential of Administrative Data”, which underscored the growing importance of leveraging data generated through administrative processes for evidence-based policymaking and governance.  The inaugural function was chaired by Dr. P. K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to Hon’ble Prime Minister and the chief guest on this occasion. Rao Inderjit Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of MoSPI, Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, MoSPI and Dr. Saibal Chattopadhyay, Chairperson, National Statistical Commission were also present during the event.

Shri P.R. Meshram, DG (Data Governance), in his welcome address talked about the various steps being taken by the Ministry in harmonization of administrative data and unlocking the same.

Chief Guest of the event, Dr. P. K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to Hon’ble Prime Minister, in his address recalled the emphasis being given by the Hon’ble PM in data driven decision making. He remarked that the theme of the 20^th Statistical Day marks inflection points of statistical system. Dr. Mishra further stated that the vast volume of digital information generated through public delivery systems, regulatory bodies, and sectoral databases must transition from a departmental byproduct into a cohesive, secure, and interoperable national asset. He also emphasised that a well-coordinated data harmonisation will be achieved through improved interaction between different Ministries and Departments at the centre-level and state-level, thus emphasizing on the whole of government approach in modernizing the statistical system. He recognized the pivotal role of the inputs received from stakeholders like PMO, NITI Aayog, RBI, retired ISS Officers that helped to address the issues of the statistical system for betterment of the data ecosystem. Dr. Mishra concluded his speech with the remark that the goals of Viksit Bharat need to be measured on a continuous basis.

Dr. Mishra gave the statistical community food for thought with key institutional goals: prioritizing data privacy and public trust, preserving institutional independence as the center of gravity shifts from traditional field surveys to administrative records, and adopting artificial intelligence with rigorous governance frameworks like auditability, explainability and provenance of data to create analytical frameworks to eliminate policy blindspots. The design principles must maintain a balance between operational priority and independence of data systems.

Rao Inderjit Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of MoSPI, in his address welcomed the vision provided by Dr. P.K. Mishra’s presence, noting it as a rare and exhilarating milestone for Statistics Day to have his inspiring presence during the inaugural session. He further underscored that the PMO's inspiring framework, focusing on genuine, untampered data and a clear vision of how the system must evolve serves as a vital call to action. He appreciated the Ministry for its dedicated, internal groundwork and inputs received from other stakeholders to modernize the data ecosystem. He reiterated that a clear path for achieving a data-driven Viksit Bharat by 2047 has been laid down by the Chief Guest. He further urged the professional community to carry these insights forward to fulfil the vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister.

Setting the context, Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, MoSPI reflected on how the harmonised data ecosystems help for broader agenda of data-driven decision making. Aligning with the mandates of the 5^th National Conference of Chief Secretaries held in December 2025, MoSPI has advanced a robust data harmonisation framework across States and Union Territories built on five fundamental pillars, including metadata compilation, data quality assessments, uniform classifications, unique identifiers, and the resolution of definitional divergences.  He further observed that the release of Practitioner's Handbook on Harmonisation of Data Sets is another step in this direction. During his address, Secretary, MoSPI also mentioned the relevance of MCP Server of MoSPI is another step to make data interoperable through AI/ML.

The different other publications released on this occasion emphasised MoSPI’s commitment in creating values from the vast amount of data that is generated regularly. Secretary, MoSPI credited this entire modernization drive to the persistent efforts of the officers and field staffs, reinforcing a collective institutional commitment to driving evidence-based, data-driven governance across the nation.

Dr. Saibal Chattopadhyay, Chairperson, National Statistical Commission, in his speech emphasized that the India's digital landscape offers a transformative opportunity to unlock routine administrative data as a real-time national asset. He emphasized that as the country advances its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), modern administrative datasets must complement traditional surveys to provide the highly granular, reliable, and secure information required by today's policymakers.

The following publications were released during the event:

On this occasion, Dr. Arup Bose, Professor (Retd.), Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata received the prestigious Sukhatme National Award in Statistics for the year 2026. The award was conferred in recognition of Prof. Arup Bose’s pioneering and sustained contribution to Statistical Theory, Probability, Random Matrix Theory, High-Dimensional Data Analysis, Resampling Methods and Time Series Analysis, which has profoundly influenced modern statistical research and practice. In his speech, he thanked the Government of India for being instrumental through various supports provided to him in his research journey.

A technical session was held following the inaugural session on “Unlocking the Potential of Administrative Data”. The first part of the session was moderated by Shri P.R. Meshram, DG (Data Governance), NSO, MoSPI that showcased the use cases of administrative data for enhancing ease of living of citizens. The session opened with insightful opening remarks by Mr. Stefan Priesner, UN Resident Coordinator in India. He linked the SDGs with the administrative data, which may be treated as an asset, rather than a by-product of data. He also emphasised on the trust of the collection of administrative data, privacy by design and safeguards against misuse. The session featured four pivotal presentations highlighting usage of administrative and sectoral data ecosystems for operational, optimization and policy insights.

The first presentation of the session was made by Shri Ajoy Sharma, Additional Secretary, M/o Labour & Employment on India’s Social Security Data Pooling Exercise, followed by a presentation on Agri Stack by Dr. Pramod Kumar Meherda, Additional Secretary, M/o Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. Shri Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary (Planning), Government of Uttar Pradesh shared the experience of Uttar Pradesh on Family ID: Transforming Administrative Data into Proactive Welfare Delivery. The final presentation of the session was on MahaVISTAAR by Ms. Minal Karanwal, Project Director, Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture (POCRA), Government of Maharashtra which showcases use of AI to provide information to farmers in Maharashtra.

The second part of the session was a panel discussion titled “From Silos to Synergy: Advancing Administrative Data Harmonisation”, which was moderated by Ms. Shalini Kapoor, Chief Strategist (Data & AI), EkStep Foundation. The panelists for the session included Mr. Nand Kumaran, CEO (National e-Governance Division), Dr. Mansi Kedia, Senior Digital Development Specialist (World Bank), Mr. Prashanth Chandramouleeswaran (Head of Public Finance, eGov Foundation), Ms. Avani Kapur (Founder & Director, Foundation for Responsive Governance (ResGov)). The speakers shared valuable insights on leveraging technological frameworks, collaborative governance, and standardized data structures to drive efficient public policy and impactful welfare delivery across the nation. The panel unanimously concluded that data governance is key to unlocking administrative data.    

About 500 participants including Senior officers from Central Ministries and Departments, State and UT Governments, representatives from international organizations such as UN agencies, and other key stakeholders participated in the event. The event also showcased a documentary on the activities of the ministry. The event was livestreamed through the official YouTube channel of MoSPI and can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/live/toRvGiWq_I4?si=adqGn2_eRJOpvnGu.

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Samrat