New Delhi: The Ministry of Statistics will conduct a domestic income survey in 2026 and has set up a Technical Advisory Group (TEG) for this under the chairmanship of former Executive Director at IMF Surjit Bhalla.This is the first domestic income survey of its kind to the Ministry to get a better picture of income distribution and welfare and aid in creating a datadivan policy.“Teg will guide the National Statistical Office towards conducting an all-India income distribution survey temporarily set for 2026. The expert group will provide guidance regarding finalizing concepts and definitions, preparation of survey methods and equipment, method of sample design and estimates, and will include the best country practices adopted around the world.”It states that the survey will also try to assess the impact of adopting technology on domestic income (wages). The statement said that the TEG will also provide guidance to the survey results and to finalize the report,In the past, Mostil made efforts to collect information about domestic income with consumer expenditure surveys on an experimental basis in the 9th round (May 1955 to September 1955) and 14th round (July 1958 to June 1959), although no information was released.Later, it collected data on receipts and recites as part of the Integrated Domestic Survey (IHS) in its 19th round (July 1964 to June 1965) and the 24th round (July 1969 to June 1970), aimed at obtaining a complete picture of domestic income transactions.The statement said that although these efforts were not released as it was found that income was estimated to be less than consumption and savings estimates.In 1983–84, NSS again attempted a pilot investigation on domestic income to find out the possibility of developing an operational possible collection of data on domestic income. This also could not turn into an All India survey.“The experience of these surveys showed that there were difficulties in view of the collecting reliable income data in the region and to overcome all these issues and oversee the overall activities of the domestic income survey and the survey experiences conducted by countries such as Australia, America, Canada and South Africa. MOSPI has formed a technical expert group (TEG)..., ”The statement said.The National Sample Survey (NSS) has taken several initiatives to plug the gaps in data in various fields of social and economic interests. It has started annual survey on unirrigated sector enterprises, services sectors, forward surveys on the capital expenditure of private sector etc.
