We are probably among those few developing countries that are pegged to be next superpowers but who still do not have any idea of their unemployment rates, birthrates, income disparities and actual poverty counts. This is quite clear just from our government data. Imagine; various commissions of the same government come out with separate reports on poverty, unemployment and other social parameters, with each report having a different count for each parameter — the figures sometimes vary so widely that they seem to be of different nations than of one. Our NSSO surveys go steps ahead. Firstly, the data takes inordinately long to compile, assemble and analyse; secondly, the credibility and accuracy is still always under doubt. And finally, our census count, which takes place once in a decade, while other countries conduct this every year!

The importance of such data in this age of information needs no mention. Our reservation policy (based on the six year old Sachar Committee report) is one crying example; National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and several other poverty alleviation programs are also framed on reports based on census data that are decades old and quite obsolete!