Bhubaneswar: The 18th National Statistics Day was observed today at the Convention Centre of Lok Seva Bhavan, Bhubaneswar to commemorate the birthday of eminent Statistician Prof. P.C. Mohalanobis by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DE&S), Planning and Convergence Department, Government of Odisha. The theme of the current year’s Statistics Day is “Use of Data for Decision Making”.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister of Odisha Mohan Charan Majhi through his message advised the officers and staff to maximize the use of technology for reliable statistics for people’s welfare. He announced the launching of the World Bank-assisted programme OSCRGPP, according to an official press release.
Development Commissioner cum Additional Chief Secretary Anu Garg graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and Pravin Srivastav, former Chief Statistician and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Government of India presently working as Chairman, State Statistical Commission, Madhya Pradesh was the Chief Speaker on the occasion. All the officers and staff of the Planning and Convergence Department, DE&S, officers & staff of field offices of DE&S, Senior Statistical Officers from line departments and retired officers of the OSE&S Cadre attended the programme.
The programme started with paying tribute to Prof. P.C. Mohalanobis by the dignitaries.
Welcoming the guests on the occasion, the Director of Economics. & Statistics, Odisha Bijay Bhusan Nanda highlighted on the importance of modernization of the statistical system and capacity building of the human resources in the organization.
Speaking on the occasion, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary Anu Garg emphasized on the use of data for decision-making and policy formulation. She also highlighted the importance of Statistical data for effective administration. She also emphasized on the instances of real-time data for policy planning and reliable statistics for good governance in the state.
Giving the Keynote address, Pravin Srivastava, former Chief Statistician and Secretary of Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation, Government of India and present Chairman of Statistical Commission, Madhya Pradesh gave a vision and architecture for a sound statistical system at the state level.
An audio-visual documentary on the glimpses on the activities of Directorate of Economics and Statistics was displayed on this occasion to sensitize the participants on different kinds of surveys conducted by the DE&S.
Three best performing District Planning and Monitoring Units (DPMUs) namely Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Boudh were felicitated for their achievements in Statistical schemes during 2023-24.
Directorate’s annual journal “Samikshya” and other statistical publications were released on this occasion by the guests. Sabyasachi Dutta, Additional Director DE&S, gave vote of thanks at the end of the inaugural session of the programme.
In the technical session, Prof. Alok Kumar Mishra, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad gave a presentation on the topic “Statistics for Good Governance”. He highlighted upon the pillars of good governance and how statistics helps in transforming governance. Another presentation was made by Nanda Director, DE&S on Good Governance, Development and Statistical Thinking.
Many Economists and statisticians from across the state joined the meeting and shared their thoughts on the theme of the current Statistics Day.
Pabitra Mohan Dwibedy Additional Director DE&S offered a vote of thanks to the Resource Person and the participants present in the technical session of the programme.
