Authorities designated Saurabh Garg as MoSPI Secretary: Saurabh Garg, an Odisha cadre IAS officer from 1991, was named to the additional charge of Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) by the government just one month earlier. On Thursday, the government announced Garg’s full-time appointment as MoSPI Secretary, along with a one-year term beyond his superannuation in July of this year.
Garg was appointed Secretary of the National Statistical Commission (NSC) in addition to his current position as Secretary of the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment.
Along with this decree, the government declared Amit Yadav, an AGMUT graduate from 1991, to be the Secretary of the Department of Social Justice & Empowerment. The government declared on May 27 that Yadav, Garg’s successor, will assume leadership as Officer on Special Duty, Department of Social Justice & Empowerment until Garg’s superannuation in July, at which point he will become secretary. This bureaucratic reorganization occurs just three days after that announcement. The appointment to the Chief Statistician of India post, which is typically held by the same official as the MoSPI Secretary, is not mentioned in the order, though. Following the outcome of the Lok Sabha election, the administration is probably going to think about finishing the appointment process for the Chief Statistician of India independently, an official stated.
Garg is a graduate of IIM Ahmedabad and John Hopkins University with a post-doctoral degree in international economics and development. He has held important positions in the past, such as Chief Executive Officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and Principal Secretary for Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment in Odisha, where he oversaw the implementation of the direct income program for farmers known as KALIA, or Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation. Prior to this, he worked as the Ministry of Finance’s Joint Secretary.
Prior to Garg, GP Samanta held the position of MoSPI Secretary until April 15, 2024. In April 2021, Samanta, an adviser in the Department of Statistics and Information Management of the Reserve Bank of India, was named Chief Statistician of India-cum-Secretary MoSPI for a two-year term. In April 2023, he received a one-year extension.
The Indian government appoints the Chief Statistician, who holds the rank of Secretary. In addition to leading the National Statistical Office and serving as Secretary of the National Statistical Commission, CSI also holds the position of Secretary, MoSPI.
In addition to gathering data on the nation’s GDP and retail inflation, MoSPI conducts a number of important surveys, including as the Annual Survey of Industries, Periodic Labour Force Survey, and Consumption Expenditure Survey.
