Monday, June 29, 2009

Indian Statistics Day

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) has celebrated Statistics Day (29th June, 2009) today for the third time. It is being celebrated on the birth anniversary of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis to pay homage to this great Statistician of India. On this day the ministry has released two publications namely:
1. Compendium of Selected Indicators of Indian Economy ( Time Series Data for Economic Sectors)
2. Children in India
Both are also available in the ministry web site : http:\\www.mospi.gov.in free of cost for use of all users.
The theme topic of the day for discussions was : "Price Statistics" in India.
MOSPI will be coming out with a combined all India Consumer Price Index in the year 2010-11.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Which is more close to Common man: WPI or CPI

Releasing the wholesale price data, the government said that "the annual rate of inflation, calculated on a point to point to basis stood at minus 1.61 per cent for the week ended June 6, 2009 as compared to 0.13 per cent for the previous week and 11.66 per cent during the corresponding week of previous year". However, food articles were costlier by 8.7 per cent from the comparable week last year as pulses moved up 17 per cent, cereals 13.5 per cent, and fruit and vegetables 10 per cent. The dip was on account of a fall in fuel prices as international crude oil is now ruling around 70 dollars a barrel against over 140 dollars a barrel during the year-ago period.
The negative inflation rate has happened last in the year 1978 when it was -0.6%. Prices of fruits and vegetables had fallen (-8.2%), as had cotton (-13.5%) and oilseeds (-14.6%). Among manufactured products, sugar and gur prices fell dramatically by 23% and edible oil prices by 11%. The government attributed this decline in prices to a good harvest in 1977-78, and cheaper inputs to agriculture. But the prices of pulses increased by over 21% while meat, eggs and fish increased by 11%. This year fruits and vegetables have fallen by 7% but various pulses (except urad and gram) have risen by 1% to 3%. It is interesting to note that the consumer price index (CPI), which measures prices for the retail, actually increased by 1.5% in 1978, even though the inflation rate based on WPI declined. The government uses changes in wholesale prices of various commodities to define inflation rate. So, it is not necessary that falling inflation means that the prices at your local vegetable or grocery shops are falling. Those prices are measured by the CPI. Data for that is yet to come in, but previous month’s figures show that they are moving on their own. Unlike 1978, when prices of non-food items like textiles, metals and machinery had risen considerably, this year, prices of these items have shown only marginal increases, perhaps due to the effects of the global slowdown. With industrial production looking up, as recently revealed by the government, demand for some of these important commodities is likely to pick up in the near future. Does all this mean that prices of cereals/pulses and vegetables have started falling or are likely to fall? That's the common man’s concern. The rate of inflation doesn't help in finding that out because it merely shows the rate of increase in prices compared to one year ago.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Indian population current Key Indicators



The District Level Household and Facility Survey is one of the largest ever demographic and health surveys carried out in India, with a sample size of about seven lakh households covering all the districts of the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India, initiated District Level Household Surveys (DLHS) in 1997 to provide district level estimates on health indicators to assists policy makers and program administrators in decentralized planning, monitoring and evaluation. The present District Level Household Survey (DLHS-3) was conducted in 2007-08 and is third in the series preceded by DLHS -1 in 1998-99 and DLHS-2 in 2002-04. DLHS-3, like other two earlier rounds, is designed to provide estimates on maternal and child health, family planning and other reproductive health services. In addition, DLHS-3 provides information related to the programmes of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). In the household questionnaire, information on all members of the household and
socio-economic characteristics of the household, assets possessed, number of marriages and deaths in the household since January 2004, etc. were collected. The ever-married women’s questionnaire contained information on women’s characteristics, maternal care, immunization and childcare, contraception and fertility preferences, reproductive health including knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The unmarried women’s questionnaire contained information on women’s characteristics, family life education, awareness about reproductive health and contraception, and HIV/AIDS, etc. The village questionnaire contained information on availability of health, education and other facilities in the village, and whether the facilities are accessible throughout the year. The health facility questionnaires contained information on human resources, infrastructure, and services. For the first time, population-linked facility survey has been conducted in DLHS-3. At the district level, all Community Health Centres and District Hospital were covered. Further, all Sub-Centres and Primary Health Centres which were expected to serve the population of the selected Primary Selected Unit were also covered. Fieldwork for India was conducted during December 2007-December 2008.


A fact sheet has been published on the web (www.nrhm-mis.nic.in) and it gives information on the key indicators and trends for the India. At state level, separate fact sheets are available for all 31 states (excluding Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland) of the India. Even similar information is available for almost all the districts of India.

As per all India provisional fact sheet, mean household size has increased to 5.1 from 4.8 which was observed for the year 2002-04. Literacy is about 72% for age 7+ population and number of children below age 15 years are nearly one third of the population. About 70% 0f the total households (over 58% in Rural Areas and over 92% in Urban Areas) have elecricity. Toilet facility access has increased and is with about 47% households. Piped drinking water is being used by about 40% of the household in their own dwelling/plot.

Mow mean age at marriage for boys is decreased to 24.2 years,while it is increased to 19.9 years in case of girls as per DLHS-3. Now over 22% of boys marry below the legal age of 21 years whereas 21.5 % of girls are marrying below legal age of 18 years in India.


Monday, June 8, 2009

Official Key Data Web Sites of Government of India Ministry/Department

Official Key Data Web Sites of Government of India Ministry/Department
Ministry of Health and Family welfare, released
National Family Health Survey report (2005-06)NFHS-3 on its website:http://www.mohfw.nic.in/
The link to this report is:
http://www.mohfw.nic.in/nfhs3/CD.htm

Ministry of Health and Family welfare, released the publication FAMILY WELFARE STATISTICS IN INDIA - 2006 and the link is http://mohfw.nic.in/dofw%20website/FWSII%20-%202006/BOOK.htm
Bulletin on rural health statistics in india 2006 was also released by the ministry and the link is http://mohfw.nic.in/dofw%20website/Bulletin%20on%20RHS%20-%20March,%202006%20-%20PDF/Title%20Page.doc
National Health Accounts for the year 2001-02 are available at the link http://www.mohfw.nic.in/NHA%202001-02.pdf
http://nrhm-mis.nic.in/ is a web portal created by the Statistics Division of the Ministry of Health for publishing its data publications on the net and also to capture online data of the various health facilities in the various blocks/ districts of the various states of Indian Union on monthly/quarterly and annual basis and also for viewing and generating various data reports to be generated by using the online captured data of various state governments' health facilities scattered through out the Country.

For recently held district level household and facility survey [DLHS - 3] for the year 2007-08 the district and state level fact sheets can be seen and downloaded at the link http://mohfw.nic.in/dlhs/dlhs08_release_1.htm

http://mohfw.nic.in/Bulletin%20on%20RHS%20-%20March,%202007%20-%20PDF%20Version/Title%20Page.htm is the link for Bulletin on rural health statistics in india 2007 released on the said portal of the Ministry of health and family welfare.

All the reports can be downloaded fre of cost, if so desired.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Official Key Data Web Sites of Government of India Ministry/Department

Official Key Data Web Sites of Government of India Ministry/Department
National Sample Survey Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation publishes Survey Reports based on large scale surveys conducted on the subjects like: Consumer Expenditure of Households, Employment and Unemployment, Operational agricultural land / Livestock holdings, Indebted through http://www.mospi.gov.in/mospi_nsso_rept_pubn.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation publishes regularily National Account Statistics, Social Statistics, Environment Statistics and Other official Statistics through
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_cso_rept_pubn.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation releases
National Account Statistics (Press Release and Statements) through
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_nad_main.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation released
Economic Census All India Report (1998) through
http://www.mospi.gov.in/mospi_ec.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation regularily releases Consumer Price Index for urban non-manual employees through
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_cpi.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation releases
Time Series data of Annual Survey of Industries (Registered under Factories’ Act) through
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_asi.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation releases
Index of Industrial Production through
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_iip.htm
Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation released
Real Sector Data Summary Data Real Sector through
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_nad_nsdp.htm http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_nad_sdrs.htm
Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment releases
Labour Statistics Consumer Price Index Numbers for industrial workers through
http://www.labourbureau.nic.in/schemes.html http://www.labourbureau.nic.in/indexes.htm
Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture releases
Agricultural Statistics at a glance through
http://www.agricoop.nic.in/agristatistics.htm
Many more will follow.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

This blog has been planned to help various researchers and planners who require Indian Data. The various official sites have been linked. The required official and privately managed data can be tracked by help of this site. The information belongs to the respective sites. The owner of those sites are wholly responsible for their data quality etc.

This site at present is in the making and soon it will be available in good collection of Indian data official and privately managed web sites. The users may download the data as provided by the various sites under certain terms and conditions.

Welcome to users of data about/of India. This blog/site is for directing users to the right site which gives the required data. The data may be social, economic or financial or political or industrial or agricultural or trade or price or commercial or administrative etc.. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Central Government is the main source of Indian government data. There are many other official sites of the government which give various types of official data. Besides, there are many private agencies and semi government i.e. quasi-government bodies which are also engaged in providing various facets of Indian data. This blog will display the various site linkages which may be used by the users. In case one is interested in a special data about India, help can be provided in getting the data if available. One may contact at the following address if some help is needed.E-mail address: vkmalhotra50@gmail.com