Bhubaneswar: The 18th National Statistics Day was celebrated on 29th June 2024 at the Convention Centre of Lok Seva Bhawan, Bhubaneswar to commemorate the birthday of eminent Statistician Prof. P.C. Mohalanobis by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DE&S), Planning and Convergence Department, Govt. 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 maximise the use of technology for reliable statistics for people’s welfare. He announced the launching of the World Bank-assisted programme OSCRGPP.
Anu Garg Development Commissioner cum Additional Chief Secretary Govt of Odisha graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and Pravin Srivasthav, Former Chief Statistician and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Govt. 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. Govt. of Odisha. Members from the print and electronic media also 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 Dr. Bijay Bhusan Nanda highlighted 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 to Govt. Anu Garg emphasised the use of data for decision-making and policy formulation. She also highlighted the importance of Statistical data for effective administration. She also emphasised the instances of real-time data for policy planning and reliable statistics for good governance in the state.
Giving the Keynote address, Pravin Srivasthava, Former Chief Statistician and. Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation, Govt. of India and present Chairman of the 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 of the activities of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics was displayed on this occasion to sensitize the participants to different kinds of surveys conducted by the DE&S.
Three best performing District Planning and Monitoring Units (DPMUs) namely Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Baudh 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 the 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 the pillars of good governance and how statistics helps in transforming governance.
Another presentation was made by Dr. 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. Sri 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.
