New Delhi: With an aim to create policies on employment based on credible data, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a task force under the chairmanship of the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Arvind Panagriya with Labour Secretary M Sathiyavathy, Secretary Statistics Dr TCA Ananth, Prof Pulak Ghosh of NITI Aayog and Shri Manish Sabharwal (Member RBI Board) as members on employment data.


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According to the statement, the task force will recommend solutions which can be implemented in a time bound manner.


The Prime Minister has directed that this task be expedited so that policies on employment can be formulated with a proper appreciation of impacts, based on credible data, it added.


"The government attaches the highest priority to job creation. India suffers from a lack of reliable, timely data on employment which has made it difficult for policy makers and independent observers to assess the extent of employment generation at different points of time. Some data is collected and published by certain agencies including the Labour Bureau, but the coverage is very small," it said.


It was noted that the Labour Bureau data covers only a few sectors and the methodology is not based on updated panel of survey respondents. The net result has been that both policy making and analysis are conducted in a data vacuum.


In view of the importance of timely and reliable data on employment, the Prime Minister has directed the PMO and concerned ministries to come up with a solution to fill this long standing gap in the country's statistical architecture, it added.


With PTI Inputs