Ministry
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the Government of India's official statistical authority: the institution that measures the economy and much of the society, from the gross domestic product and the inflation index to employment, industrial output and household consumption. Through its statistics wing, the National Statistical Office, it compiles the national accounts and runs the country's flagship surveys; through its programme-implementation wing it monitors major infrastructure projects and the MPLAD scheme. Because its numbers set the factual baseline every other arm of the state, the markets and the courts argue over, MoSPI is the seat of power that defines what counts as economic reality in India.
Updated
- Established
- 15 October 1999 (as an independent ministry)
- Headquarters
- Sardar Patel Bhawan, New Delhi
- Statistics wing
- National Statistical Office (NSO) — CSO and NSSO merged in 2019
- Governing law
- Collection of Statistics Act, 2008
- Current GDP base year
- 2022-23 (new series released 27 February 2026)
Role
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is India’s official statistical authority — the institution that decides how the state measures the economy and much of the society, and then publishes the numbers everyone else treats as fact. Its statistics wing, the National Statistical Office (NSO), compiles the national accounts (from which gross domestic product is estimated), the Consumer Price Index and the Index of Industrial Production, and runs the country’s flagship household surveys: the Periodic Labour Force Survey on employment, the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey on spending and poverty, and the wider National Sample Survey programme. When the Ministry of Finance frames a Budget, the Reserve Bank of India sets interest rates, or a court weighs a welfare claim, they argue over MoSPI’s figures. That makes it a quiet but foundational seat of power: it does not spend much or regulate anyone, yet it defines the baseline against which every other institution’s performance is judged.
The ministry has two wings. Alongside the statistics wing sits the programme-implementation wing, which monitors the physical and financial progress of major central-sector infrastructure projects, the Twenty Point Programme and the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS). The statistical system’s credibility rests on institutions layered above the data desks: the autonomous National Statistical Commission, created in 2006 to advise on standards and guard integrity, and the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, which gives the state its legal power to gather statistics. Both the strength and the contested independence of these bodies are recurring themes in the debate over whether India’s official numbers can be trusted.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
- reference
National Income Committee constituted
The government set up the National Income Committee under P. C. Mahalanobis to produce India's first official national-income estimates, laying the foundation of the country's statistical system.
- reference
Central Statistics Office established
The Central Statistical Organisation was set up to coordinate statistical activity and compile the national accounts, a year after the National Sample Survey was launched in 1950.
- reference
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation formed
The Department of Statistics and the Department of Programme Implementation were merged into a single independent ministry with two wings.
- reference
National Statistical Commission established
An autonomous National Statistical Commission was constituted to advise on statistical priorities and standards and to serve as a check on the integrity of official data.
- reference
Parliament passes the Collection of Statistics Bill, replacing the 1953 Act
The Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 17 May 2007, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 19 December 2008 and the Lok Sabha on 23 December 2008; it empowers statistics officers to require information from informants, restricts published data from being traceable to individuals, bars its use as evidence in proceedings, and lets the central government designate core statistics of national importance.
- official
National accounts rebased from 2004-05 to 2011-12; GDP at factor cost retired
The ministry released the new national-accounts series pegging base-year 2011-12 GDP at Rs 88.3 lakh crore, with real growth of 5.1% in 2012-13 and 6.9% in 2013-14. It also stopped discussing GDP at factor cost, presenting industry-wise output as Gross Value Added at basic prices instead — a presentational change that reset how every other institution reads Indian growth.
- official
Periodic Labour Force Survey launched, ending quinquennial-only employment data
The ministry launched the PLFS during 2017-18 to produce annual rural-and-urban labour-force estimates and quarterly urban estimates, replacing reliance on the quinquennial Employment-Unemployment Survey last run in 2011-12. The stated driver was national policy need plus India's obligations under the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standard, to which it has subscribed since 1996.
- reference
Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Act extends the statute to Jammu and Kashmir
Passed by the Lok Sabha on 11 April 2017 and the Rajya Sabha on 26 July 2017, the amendment extended the 2008 Act to Jammu and Kashmir for Union and Concurrent List subjects, created a nodal officer to coordinate statistical activities, and removed the restriction confining collected information to statistical purposes, letting the central government determine how it is used.
- reference
Back-series of national accounts released, lowering pre-2014 growth rates
The ministry published back-series estimates on the 2011-12 base that revised down growth for much of the previous decade, including 2010-11 from 10.3% to 8.5%. The release was made alongside NITI Aayog rather than by the statistical office on its own, drawing objections that a policy body was fronting official data.
- reference
Statistical Commission members resign over data delays
The acting chairman and another independent member of the National Statistical Commission resigned, citing government interference and the withholding of the PLFS employment results, in the sharpest public crisis over data credibility.
- official
National Statistical Office created
An order (No. M-12011/1/2019-CAP) merged the Central Statistics Office and the National Sample Survey Office into a single National Statistical Office within the ministry.
- official
First PLFS annual report published after months of withheld results
The ministry released the PLFS Annual Report for July 2017-June 2018 together with the October-December 2018 quarterly bulletin, based on 12,773 sampled first-stage units covering 1,02,113 households and 4,33,339 persons. It appeared four months after two National Statistical Commission members resigned over the delay in releasing exactly this survey.
- gdelt
Ministry withholds the 2017-18 Consumer Expenditure Survey citing data quality
The ministry said it would not release the 2017-18 household consumer expenditure results, citing data-quality issues and a divergence from administrative data, and said it was examining the feasibility of a fresh survey in 2020-21 and 2021-22. The decision left India without an official consumption benchmark — and so without an official poverty line update — until the 2022-23 round.
- official
Cabinet suspends MPLADS for two years and diverts the fund to COVID management
The Union Cabinet approved non-operation of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme for 2020-21 and 2021-22, placing the fund at the disposal of the Ministry of Finance to manage the pandemic. It was the first full suspension of the scheme since its inception, halting the ministry's largest disbursing programme.
- official
Cabinet restores MPLADS with a Rs 17,417 crore outlay to 2025-26
The Union Cabinet restored the scheme for the remainder of 2021-22 at Rs 2 crore per MP and continued it at Rs 5 crore per MP per year through 2025-26, co-terminus with the Fifteenth Finance Commission, at a total outlay of Rs 17,417 crore. The ministry recorded 19,86,206 works completed since inception, worth Rs 54,171.09 crore.
- reference
eSankhyiki data portal launched on Statistics Day
The ministry launched eSankhyiki, a single portal exposing its major datasets and macro indicators for public download and API access, consolidating releases previously scattered across the ministry's site.
- official
Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24 released
The ministry published consumption results showing average monthly per-capita spending of Rs 4,122 (rural) and Rs 6,996 (urban), the data underpinning revised estimates of poverty and inequality.
- reference
PLFS moves to monthly bulletins, ending the quarterly-urban-only cadence
The ministry issued the first PLFS Monthly Bulletin, for April 2025, following a revamp of the survey that extended monthly labour-force indicators to rural as well as urban areas. It shortened India's official employment-data lag from quarterly to monthly.
- official
New GDP series with base year 2022-23 released
The ministry replaced the 2011-12 base with a 2022-23 base, incorporating GST, e-commerce, digital-payment and administrative data, and pegged real GDP growth at 7.6% for 2025-26.
Frequently asked
- What is Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation?
- The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the Government of India's official statistical authority: the institution that measures the economy and much of the society, from the gross domestic product and the inflation index to employment, industrial output and household consumption. Through its statistics wing, the National Statistical Office, it compiles the national accounts and runs the country's flagship surveys; through its programme-implementation wing it monitors major infrastructure projects and the MPLAD scheme. Because its numbers set the factual baseline every other arm of the state, the markets and the courts argue over, MoSPI is the seat of power that defines what counts as economic reality in India.
- When was Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation established?
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation was established 1999.
- What does Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation do?
- Its remit covers National accounts and the estimation of GDP (base year 2022-23 from February 2026), Flagship household surveys: PLFS (employment), HCES (consumption), and the National Sample Survey programme, Price and output statistics: Consumer Price Index and the Index of Industrial Production, The Economic Census, the Annual Survey of Industries and statistical standards, Programme implementation: monitoring of major infrastructure projects, the Twenty Point Programme and MPLADS.
- What is the latest on Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation?
- As of 2026-07-06: New GDP series with base year 2022-23 released. The ministry replaced the 2011-12 base with a 2022-23 base, incorporating GST, e-commerce, digital-payment and administrative data, and pegged real GDP growth at 7.6% for 2025-26.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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Canonical ministry site; carries release announcements for PLFS bulletins, GDP estimates and survey reports.
www.mospi.gov.in/
- Publications & Reports reports
Searchable, dated archive of ministry publications including the MoSPI Annual Report and survey reports.
www.mospi.gov.in/publications-reports
- MPLADS–eSAKSHI portal department
Dedicated portal for the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme administered by the ministry.
mplads.mospi.gov.in/
- Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 (India Code) legislation
Bare Act with rules and the 2017 amendment; the statute under which MoSPI collects statistics.
www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2081?view_type=search
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Ministry press releases are issued via PIB under the 'Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation' tag.
www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2029708&lang=1®
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