Capacity Development Scheme to be continued until 2019-20

New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) The Centre today approved the continuation of the Capacity Development Scheme until 2019-20 to help build capacity to bring important sets of macroeconomic and other data by the Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry (MoSPI).

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the continuation of the Capacity Development Scheme for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs 2,250 crore, an official statement said.

The Capacity Development Scheme is an Ongoing Central Sector Scheme of MoSPI. The overall objective of the scheme is to augment infrastructural, technical as well as manpower resources for making available credible and timely Official Statistics for policymakers and public at large.

The major ongoing activities under the Capacity Development Scheme, include augmenting resources for bringing out important statistical products, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Consumer Price Index (CPI), Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Statistical classifications, etc.; conducting various Socio-Economic surveys, capacity building and strengthening statistical coordination, and improving IT infrastructure.

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), a continuous survey to assess quarterly labor data in urban areas and annual labor data for the whole country (urban and rural areas), was launched in April 2017 under the scheme.

The Capacity Development Scheme has two Sub-schemes, Economic Census, and Support for Statistical Strengthening (SSS). Under Economic Census, a listing of all non-agricultural establishments is undertaken periodically, which forms the basis for conducting detailed socio-economic surveys.

The last (6l) Economic Census was conducted during January 2013 to April 2014 and the Government now aims to conduct the Census once every three years in future. The SSS Sub-scheme is to strengthen State/ Sub-State level statistical systems/ infrastructure to facilitate the development of a robust national system. Funds are released to States/ UTs for this purpose after detailed examination of their proposals.