Mospi secy calls for breaking data silos, keeping AI tied to verified data | Economy & Policy News

He added that citizens and businesses should not have to submit the same information repeatedly to different arms of the government.

On artificial intelligence (AI), which Garg described as an evolving area, he said Mospi is using AI for analytical work, but within strict limits.

“Any data or inference that we think of has to be based on sources which are verified and validated,” he said, adding that clear guardrails on small domain models are needed to prevent hallucination. AI is also helping enumerators classify occupations and industries during house-to-house surveys, improving data quality, he noted.

Garg cited PM Gati Shakti and One Nation, One Ration Card as examples of interoperable data improving service delivery. “What really matters is how digital services are delivered at scale in a manner that is accessible to all,” he said.

On technology, Garg said household surveys have moved from pen and paper to tablets, with data uploaded to backend platforms in real time, improving timeliness. “Old data is something which no one wants. Everyone wants yesterday’s data today,” he said.

Data from the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments is also giving a clearer picture of which sectors and regions are seeing expenditure growth and expanding.

The ministry has also begun releasing district-level analysis in recent months, which Garg said would help local decision-making. Without it, he said, policymakers are left with “a one-size-fits-all picture at the state or national level.”

At the sub-national level, he said Mospi is also working with State Directorates of Economics and Statistics (DE&S) to align data on labour, inflation and industrial growth with central protocols. The ministry has issued guidelines for Gross State Domestic Product and is working with states to produce District Domestic Product estimates, he said.

“These will be used by the states to ensure that they bring out data which is then comparable across states,” Garg said.

Additionally, Garg said the ministry tracks about 28 international indices, reviewing their data sources and methodologies with the ministries concerned to ensure they are appropriate for India. He noted that some indices have been revised following feedback from several countries, including the World Bank’s replacement of its Ease of Doing Business ranking with the B-READY Index.