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Sonai Desai on India's Data Infrastructure in an Open-Ed in The Hindu

In an Op-Ed in The Hindu, Faculty Associate Sonalde Desai writes, "when it comes to quantifying poverty or GDP growth, a country’s data infrastructure needs to be of a certain level for the evaluation of public policies." In her piece, she celebrates 25 years of the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) but also raises a concern – “will deteriorating data quality… lead evidence-based policy development astray?” Poor data quality on contraceptive use in the NFHS of 2015-16 is one such example, she adds.

Desai argues that “partisan bickering” usually sidetracks the discussions on data collection systems and despite a massive data demand in modern India, the existing statistical infrastructure prevents the completion of even “traditional tasks”. Surveys need to be more realistic and make use of creative methodologies, she writes, and large sample sizes at district levels can actually hamper data quality. Better training of field investigators, adapting to “changing institutional and technological environment for data collection” and establishing better research units and research design are also required.

See the complete story at The Hindu