NSO to be headed by Chief Statistician

The newly created National Statistical Organisation (NSO) will be headed by Chief Statistician of India (CSI) cum Secretary (Statistics and Programme Implementation).

Why the Confusion?

The central government order which cleared the merger of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and Central Statistics Office (CSO) to create the NSO had only mentioned Secretary (Statistics and Programme Implementation) as the head of NSO and did not mention Chief Statistician of India.

Not equating the post of Secretary, MoSPI with the CSI led to the possibility of reporting authority for statistics to be a bureaucrat, rather than the Chief Statistician of India for carrying out statistical work.

The Chief Statistician is someone familiar with statistics, data, whereas a Secretary doesn t necessarily well versed with the aspects of data and statistics. The mentioning of only Secretary as the head would have changed the nature of the post. The mentioning of Statistician of India-cum-Secretary takes care of the problem.