Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T23:52:05.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - A Nation in Numbers

from Part I - Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2022

Nikhil Menon
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Get access

Summary

Chapter 1 reveals how India’s statistical infrastructure was built and establishes its link to planning. It tracks the early career of P. C. Mahalanobis and the institution he founded in Calcutta (the Indian Statistical Institute) to describe the ascent of statistics as an academic discipline in India, and its growing association with applied economics. This was the period that produced organizations such as the Central Statistical Organization and the National Sample Survey, both of which persist and remain significant to policy making to this day. It was also during this phase that India first began periodic assessments of national income (a precursor to the GDP) and nationwide sample surveys that delivered high-definition snapshots of the economy. The chapter argues that this national statistical framework—pioneering among developing nations and a global trailblazer in large sample surveys—emerged as a response to the quantitative needs of centralized economic planning.

Type
Chapter
Information
Planning Democracy
Modern India's Quest for Development
, pp. 25 - 51
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • A Nation in Numbers
  • Nikhil Menon, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: Planning Democracy
  • Online publication: 24 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043892.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • A Nation in Numbers
  • Nikhil Menon, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: Planning Democracy
  • Online publication: 24 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043892.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • A Nation in Numbers
  • Nikhil Menon, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • Book: Planning Democracy
  • Online publication: 24 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009043892.002
Available formats
×