Sample surveys are important to validate administrative databases

The report shows the importance of sample surveys to validate administrative databases and the need to restrain the tendency to be overly confident on administrative data — be it EPFO data or MCA-21 data — without adequate scrutiny of the processes that generate the databases.

A regular annual survey of manufacturing establishments using the list of registered factories has been in vogue since long.

The National Sample Survey Organisation’s Technical Report on the survey of services sector enterprises is in the news for its findings on the accuracy of the list of companies in the services sector, sourced from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. In the atmosphere of mistrust of official data following the suppression of the employment report, the conclusions of this technical report are not surprising. The clarification from the government has done little to clear the air. Some misgivings expressed by experts overlook the usual weaknesses of administrative data, though some questions still need to be answered by the Central Statistical Office (CSO).