The Government has been celebrating the Statistics Day, to popularize the use of Statistics in everyday life and sensitize public on how Statistics helps shaping and framing policies for the welfare of people. It is celebrated every year on the birth anniversary of Prof. P C Mahalanobis, on 29th June, in recognition of his invaluable contribution in establishing the National Statistical System. This year, due to the global pandemic, the Statistics Day, 2020 was celebrated through video conferencing. It was also live streamed nationally and internationally through various social media channels. The theme of Statistics Day, 2020 was Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)- 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) & SDG- 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and Ministry of Planning, Rao Inderjit Singh addressed the Statistics Day, 2020 gathering. Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council and President, Indian Statistical Institute, Prof. Bimal Kumar Roy, Chairman, National Statistical Commission (NSC), Shri Pravin Srivastava, Chief Statistician of India-cum-Secretary, MoSPI, Dr. Preeti Sudan, Secretary Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, Dr Sangita Reddy, President, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry and Joint General Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd., Prof. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Director, Indian Statistical Institute addressed the gathering on various aspects of the theme of the occasion and its importance. The representatives of various international agencies namely, Ms. Renata Lok Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator in India, Dr. Anita Bhatia, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women, Dr. Enrique Ordaz, Director General, National Institute of Statistics and Geograhpy, Mexico, Dr. Gemma Van Halderen, Director, Statistics Division, UN ESCAP, Bangkok, also conveyed their message on the occasion. Moreover, senior officers of Central/ State Governments and other stakeholders also participated in the event through video conferencing.
MoSPI has instituted a new award ‘Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics’ for recognizing outstanding achievement of official statisticians in Central Government, State/UT Governments and institutions. Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis National Award in Official Statistics’2020 was conferred upon Dr. Chakravarthi Rangarajan, Former Governor, Reserve Bank of India in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the National Statistical System in India.Dr Arvind Pandey, former Director National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Dr. Akhilesh Chandra Kulshreshtha, Ex-Addl. Director General, MoSPI, Government of India were jointly given the Prof. P.V. Sukhatme National Award in Statistics 2020 for their life time contribution in the field of Statistics The winners of ‘On the Spot Essay Writing Competition’ for Post Graduate Students on the subject relevant to Statistics organized at All India level were also felicitated.Presentations on various thematic items on challenges and way forward for achieving SDGs were also made. The updated version of the Report on Sustainable Development Goals-National Indicator Framework (NIF) Progress Report, 2020 (version 2.1) was released during the event. Along with the report, the updated NIF and a SDGs data snapshot handbook were also released. MoSPI also announced that it was in the process of launching Indian Statistical Service (ISS) Cadre Management Portal for deployment of ISS cadre personnel and enhance their career prospects. The National Statistics Day, 2020 will be followed up by a series of seminars and workshops on the theme carrying on through the year. The discussions and deliberations are available on MoSPI’s website for wider circulation.