There is a huge amount of organised government data available for organisations to leverage but how many are doing it? Countries around the world are embarking on significant modernisation of their national statistical systems in the face of rapid technology and socio-economic changes. India is at the cusp of a new digital and socio-economic transformation. The government of the day has set out an ambitious and well though through plan to bring in efficiency, transparency and improving the lives of its citizens. As we stare at the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) the systems need to be geared up for meeting tomorrows needs of society and people.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has come out with a draft policy stating their vision for 2024 – ‘Strengthen India’s National Statistical System to provide real time inputs for policy and stronger dissemination and practices for public.’ The integrated statistics approach factors in Institutional setting, statistical infrastructure and statistical operations. It addresses Surveys, registers, economic and environmental data, household data and micro-economic data.
The National Data Bank of socio-religious categories is developed with a view to provide users access to all data, pertaining to various aspects of socio-economic life of population falling in different social/religious categories, from a single window:
- Education
- Health
- Labour and Employment
- Population
- Programmes/Schemes Related Data
- Socio-Economic Caste Census Data
- State-wise Distribution of Working Enterprises by Social/Religious Ownership of Registered / Unregistered Sectors
- Population by Religious Community (India & States/UTs/District/Sub-Distt/Town Level)
- Census 2011 Data
- Census 2001 Tables
- Meta Data
- Schemes
The data sets available on the national data archive, on last count include a staggering 145 studies. These span across Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Labour Force Survey, Annual survey of Industries, Domestic Tourism Expenditure, Household expenditure on Services and Durable goods, Drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and housing condition, Social Consumption – Education Survey, Land and Livestock Holdings Survey, Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households, Employment and Unemployment, Household Consumer Expenditure, Urban Slums Survey, Housing Condition Survey, Employment, Unemployment and Migration Survey, Unorganised Manufacturing Enterprises Survey, Service Sector in India, Survey on Morbidity and Health Care, Debt & Investment, Housing Condition Survey, Survey of disabled persons, Village Facilities Survey, Time Use Survey, Survey on Migration and Ownership of Land by Non-Tribals in Tribal Area, Trade Survey, Survey on Utilisation of Medical Services.
Now for a second pause and understand how Banks, Insurance players, NBFCs, Mutual Funds, FMCGs, Consumer Durables, Health and Pharma companies and a plethora of services can use this data to drive their growth agenda. Imagine the impact their sales and marketing programs can have when they factor in data from 14,000+ towns and blocks in India:
The above statistics are from the Socio-Economic/Monitoring Survey, a record 72nd round of survey. The survey on household expenditure on services and durable goods has two parts: one on household expenditure on miscellaneous services, and the other on expenditure on durable goods by households.
One important macro-economic indicator derived from the National Accounts statistics is Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE). Household expenditure on services consumed by households, which forms an important part of this, is at present estimated as a proportion of total value of production of such services. The 72nd round survey gives an estimate of total value of household consumption of services, which can be used to estimate the proportion of total production of services that is consumed by households.
The second important indicator is capital formation in the economy. In the National Accounts, capital formation is estimated by distinguishing two main categories of assets, namely, construction and machinery. Durable goods that have dual use, that is, use for both consumption by households as well as for production by household enterprises (individual proprietorship and partnerships) are termed partly capital goods in national accounting. To estimate capital formation of machinery and equipment, value of acquisition of partly capital goods and parts of partly capital goods must be estimated. This survey focuses on expenditure on durable goods which have dual use. It aims to estimate the total value of acquisition of durable goods by households and the value of the durable goods (partly capital goods) which are primarily used by households for production of goods and services.
The sample survey data includes:
- Descriptive identification of sample household
- Identification of sample household
- Particulars of field operations
- Household characteristics
- Demographic particulars of household members
- Transport expenditure incurred during overnight “round journeys” completed during the last 30 days.
- Transport expenses incurred for movements during the last 30 days that were not part of overnight “round journeys”
- Expenditure on miscellaneous consumer services during the last 30 days.
- Expenditure on repairs and maintenance of selected items, Annual maintenance Contract payments, hotel lodging charges, and other selected services during the last 365 days.
- Food expenditure in hotels and restaurants during the last 7 days.
- Block Expenditure on durable goods acquired during the last 365 days other than those used exclusively for entrepreneurial activity.
For example, just have a look at the below graphic providing the budget share of expenses on different consumer services in urban and rural India. This data is a Marketers delight and can be layered with all the data and understanding the organisation already has about their current and potential customers. Hansa Cequity leverages all these data sets effectively to provide intelligence based macro and micro data insights to organisations.
The below chart gives average expenditure on treatment (non-hospitalisation cases) across different systems of medicine. It covers some important treatment types: allopathy, Indian system of medicine, homeopathy, and yoga or naturopathy. Priceless information, I would believe.
I keep sharing this with whoever cares to listen, it’s not about data availability. It is about data structure, data strategy and business strategy aligning seamlessly. It requires a lateral approach to stitch different data sets together to get a competitive edge in a data driven world.