Which Act provides the legal framework for the collection of official statistics in India?
- A.The Census Act, 1948
- B.The Collection of Statistics Act, 2008
- C.The Right to Information Act, 2005
- D.The Indian Statistical Institute Act, 1959
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008. It empowers the Union, the State and local governments to collect statistics on economic, demographic, social, scientific and environmental matters, obliges the informant to furnish the information asked for, and bars the disclosure of the information of an individual informant for any purpose other than statistics; it was amended in 2017 to extend its reach to the whole of India. Option A, the Census Act of 1948, is the law for the decennial population count alone and is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Option C, the Right to Information Act of 2005, gives citizens access to information held by public authorities and has nothing to do with the collection of statistics. Option D is not the governing statute of the statistical system; the Indian Statistical Institute is an institute of national importance, but it is a research and teaching body.
Read the full article: National Statistical System of India: NSO and Surveys
Practice Questions
View allThe National Statistical Office was formed in 2019 by merging which two organisations?
- A.The Central Statistics Office and the National Sample Survey Office
- B.The Labour Bureau and the Central Statistics Office
- C.The Economic Adviser's Office and the National Sample Survey Office
- D.The Registrar General's Office and the Central Statistics Office
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In 2019 the government merged the two bodies into a single National Statistical Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, so that the preparation of the national accounts and the conduct of the large sample surveys would sit in one office.
Read the full explanation →National Statistics Day is observed in India on which date?
- A.29 February
- B.29 June
- C.20 October
- D.15 September
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National Statistics Day has been observed on 29 June every year since 2007 to mark the birth anniversary of Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis and to create awareness about the use of statistics in planning and policy; a theme is announced each year by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Read the full explanation →Who founded the Indian Statistical Institute at Kolkata in 1931 and is called the father of Indian statistics?
- A.C. R. Rao
- B.P. C. Mahalanobis
- C.V. K. R. V. Rao
- D.D. R. Gadgil
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Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis founded the Indian Statistical Institute at Kolkata in 1931, set up the National Sample Survey in 1950, gave statistics the distance measure named after him, pioneered large scale sample surveys and pilot surveys, and prepared the plan frame of the Second Five Year Plan, which placed heavy…
Read the full explanation →The Census of India is conducted by an office under which ministry?
- A.Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
- B.Ministry of Home Affairs
- C.Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
- D.Ministry of Rural Development
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The census is taken by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs, under the authority of the Census Act of 1948; the same office maintains the civil registration system of births and deaths.
Read the full explanation →The first synchronous census in India was conducted in which year?
- A.1872
- B.1881
- C.1891
- D.1901
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The census of 1881, taken under the Viceroy Lord Ripon and directed by W. C. Plowden, was the first to be carried out on one reference date across the whole country, and the unbroken decennial series of Indian censuses is counted from it.
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