By IANS,
New Delhi : The government plans to carry out an economic census next year to assess the impact of economic reforms on various industries and to formulate policies better.
“The census would involve collection of data from entrepreneurial units in the country,” said a statement from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.
“Data on sectoral activity of the unit, number of workers, social group of the owner, female owned enterprise among others would be collected for micro level planning and policy formulations with respect to various economic activities,” it added.
The census, which is the sixth such activity to be undertaken, will see field work being done by the ministry of statistics from January to June of 2012 in collaboration with state and union territory governments.
The ministry also laid emphasis on studying the benefits to the services sector of the economic reforms process as it contributed significantly towards the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and also in generation of employment.
“The database would enable policy makers and analysts to assess the impact of the economic liberalisation process on entrepreneurial activities, especially in the unorganised sector,” said the statement.
The data at lower geographical levels like tehsil or village in case of rural areas, and wards in the case of urban areas, would also be a valuable input for local level planning, it added.
Analysis of the information collected would help policymakers assess the individual contribution of various industrial sectors in the country’s GDP.