Chapter 23 - Indian Statistical Service (ISS) | A Bouquet of Services by IPS Lohit Matani and IPS Vishal - UPSC PDF Download

Indian Statistical Service (ISS)

Contributor: Ms. Anshika Bhatnagar, ISS 2015 Batch

23.1 Cadre Structure and Overview

ISS officers lead and work under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) (its cadre controlling authority). Officers also function under the Statistics division of other ministries like Ministry of Agriculture, Tourism, Human Resource Development, Commerce, and so on.

23.2 Roles and Responsibilities

Apart from the parent Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI), Indian Statistical Service officers are posted in almost all the major Ministries and Departments/

Organizations, where they are responsible for Data Management and Administration of collection,

compilation, analysis and dissemination of statistical reports in a multidisciplinary domain. Officers work for official statistics at national level in core sectors in addition to supporting and collaborating with the State Statistical System. They are also responsible for conducting all major surveys, with all India coverage in all sectors. The function of the officers varies in the following department/ offices:

I.    In Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation:

In the Statistics wing of the ministry, ISS officers perform the following duties:

1. They are responsible for the planned development of the statistical system in the  country.
2. They lay down norms and standards in the field of statistics.
3. They coordinate the statistical work with the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and State Statistical Bureaus (SSBs).
4. They lead teams for compiling and releasing Consumer Price Index (CPI) Numbers and Annual Inflation rates based on these CPI numbers.
5. They maintain liaison with International Statistical Organizations, such as, the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD), ESCAP, the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP), IMF, ADB, FAO, ILO, etc
6. They lead teams for compiling reports on international commitments like Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and SAARC Development Goals.
7. For studying the impact of programs and policies, they conduct large scale all-India sample surveys among the target population in diverse socio-economic areas like employment, consumer expenditure, housing conditions and environment, literacy levels, health, nutrition, family welfare, etc.

II.  In Central Statistical Office (CSO):

In CSO, ISS officers are responsible for coordinating the statistical activities in the country and evolving statistical standards. The work in its various divisions involves:

1. National Accounts Division (NAD): In this division, the officers are responsible for the preparation of national accounts, which includes Gross Domestic Product, Government and Private Final Consumption Expenditure, Fixed Capital Formation and other macro-economic aggregates.
2. Social Statistics Division (SSD): Officers posted in this division perform monitoring of social programs like Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and collect Basic Statistics for Local Level Development (BSLLD) Pilot scheme.
3. Economic Statistics Division (ESD): In this division, officers prepare industries and infrastructure related statistics like Economic Censuses, Annual Surveys of Industries (ASI), All India Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Energy Statistics and Infrastructure Statistics and develop classifications like National Industrial Classification (NIC) and National Product Classification (NPC).

III. In National Sample Survey Office (NSSO):

Officers in this office are responsible for conduct of large scale sample surveys in diverse fields on all India bases. Primarily data are collected through nation-wide household surveys on various socio-economic subjects. Besides these surveys, officers also collect data on rural and urban prices and play a significant role in the improvement of crop statistics by supervising the area enumeration and crop estimation surveys of the State agencies.

IV. In Program Implementation Wing:

Officers in this wing monitor the implementation of Twenty Point Program (TPP), whose trust is poverty reduction and improvement of quality of life of underprivileged people. They also monitor important infrastructure sectors in the country to provide an overview of the performance with a view to highlighting slippages, if any, in respect of Power, Coal, Steel, Railways, Telecommunications, Ports, Fertilizers, Cement, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Roads, and Civil Aviation. Apart from these, officers also monitor the implementation of Minister of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS).

V.  In Other Ministries:

ISS officers occupy key statistics posts in major ministries like Ministry of Tourism, Agriculture, Human Resource Development, Home Affairs, and Corporate Affairs and so on. The type of work they do in some of these ministries is as follows:

1. Ministry of Tourism: Here the major task of ISS officers is the preparation of Tourism Satellite Account used for the economic measurement of tourism. After doing statistical analysis of tourist inflow and outflow in various regions like Buddha Circuit, they try to understand the interests of tourists in India. They provide key inputs for calculating Tourism GDP and formulating tourism related policy. They analyze the source country for major tourists and point out countries from where the flow is less. Based on their surveys, policies are designed to attract tourists from various countries.
2. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare: In this ministry, the task of ISS officers is to conduct livestock census (detailed information on category wise livestock population) and agricultural census (data on structural characteristics of agriculture). They also analyze financial and physical achievements under various schemes for agricultural development.
3. Ministry of Commerce and Industry: Officers posted in the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) are responsible for compilation and dissemination of data on inter-state movement of goods by rail, river and air. On the other hand, officers posted in Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) are responsible for collecting and analyzing statistics related to foreign trade.

23.3 Normal Growth Profile

We will be discussing about the various career opportunities an ISS Officer has in a separate topic. However, this topic only deals with various ranks an ISS Officer holds during his professional life. These ranks are held when he/ she is working in his/ her main line department/s

23.4 Recruitment

The recruitment into ISS happens through two channels:

1. People are inducted into ISS after qualifying in the Indian Statistical Service Exam conducted by UPSC.
2. The Group B Subordinate Statistical Service (SSS) officers working in MOSPI are promoted to the ISS grade after 20-25 years of service (50%). For this (junior level) level entry into the service, one has to pass the Combined Graduate Level examination conducted by the Staff Service Commission (SSC).

For applying in the Indian Statistical Service examination, the minimum requirement for a candidate is a either a graduate degree in statistics or a graduate degree in any subject in which there was one subject of statistics. The examination of ISS consists of one paper on General Studies, one on English and four on Statistics.

23.5 Training

The training structure of the ISS is described below:

The majority of this training is conducted at National Statistical Systems Training Academy, Greater Noida. The training is held in diverse areas of statistics at various places and institutes like Indian Statistical Institute, Institute of Economic Growth, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training, Indian Institute of Public Administration, National Institute of Rural Development, Administrative Staff College of India, Different Field Offices of NSSO, prestigious management institutions like IIMs, and so on. On the job training is conducted by attaching the officer trainee in some ministry.

In Service Training: Apart from the above formal training structure, various in service courses are conducted by NSSTA in order to impart expertise in certain domains like E-governance, National Accounts, Financial Statistics, Big Data Analysis, and so on.

23.6 Variety of Opportunities for ISS Officers

Apart from the usual work profile in the State government, ISS Officers have ample opportunities to serve in organizations of State, national as well international level.

23.7 Perks, Privileges and Advantages for an ISS Officer

The job profile of ISS satisfies the officers in the following ways:

1. The postings are mostly in big cities like Delhi with an opportunity to shift to another place of choice also.
2. There is no political interference and pressure in this job.
3. It gives a sense of immense pride to the officers to know that their work, the data they collect and the analysis they do, is instrumental in the socio-economic development of the country.
4. Throughout their career, officers prepare important indicators like GDP and inflation which are very important indicators of a nation’s well being.
5. Their work is a precursor to the policy formulation stage of the Government of India. Without the help of ISS officers, any policy would be arbitrary and based on gut feeling only.
6. Officers develop expertise in various fields of statistics. This increases their deputation as well as their after service opportunities.

23.8 Occupational Hazards

The officers sometimes suffer from the lack of response from the general public. People sometimes do not treat the officers with courtesy and refuse to give necessary data about their socio-economic conditions. Officers also complain about the back end nature of the job. After the junior level, public interaction becomes minimal. Apart from this, the numbers of subordinate staff under an ISS officer are not as much as in All India Services and certain other Central Civil Services. Moreover, officers also complain about the different domains they have to learn in order to do their work. Once they are shifted from one ministry to another, they have to learn the systems and statistics of the new ministry. Sometimes this learning process becomes difficult and painstaking.

23.9    Case Studies Indicating the Work, Challenges and Ethical Dilemmas                                          Faced by an ISS Officer

23.9.1 Problems in Data Collection

Ms. Supriya Raj is posted as an Assistant Director in the Ministry of Rural Development. She was fortunate enough to join the organization at a time when the government started with the project of Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC). It is for the first that the Government has undertaken such a comprehensive exercise for both rural and urban India. It is expected to generate information on a large number of social and economic indicators relating to households across the country. It is expected to enable households to be ranked based on their Socio- Economic status. State Governments can then prepare a list of families living below the poverty line.

Ms. Supriya led a team to collect socio-economic data in the Western Uttar Pradesh region. As the motto of the work was high, the team was high in morale. However, when her team visited to the villages of western Uttar Pradesh they faced certain difficulties. Firstly, the people over there had a negative attitude against Ms. Supriya and the other female members of her team. They used to pass unwanted comments on her like “girls are born to work in home; see the kind of clothes she is wearing, and so on”. Secondly, many of the villagers were not interested in giving data to her. They used to deny or delay information to her. She used to make at least 10-12 visits to a village in order to collect complete information from there.

Many of the villagers were not hospitable to her. They used to keep her standing outside their houses for long time without offering even a glass of water. They even used to question the purpose of this survey and why should they reveal their personal information to her. Soon her team members started losing their morale. Her team started witnessing at least 50% absenteeism every day. She also got frustrated and decided to change her work profile.

Q. What measures you would have taken, in place of Surpiya, in order to deal with the above challenges? What would you have done in order to motivate yourself and your team members?