Part 20: Summary of Agencies (Who Releases What?)

Welcome to the grand finale, future Indian Statistical Service (ISS) officers!

If you have read through this entire series, your conceptual clarity on the Indian Statistical System is now rock solid. However, the UPSC ISS (General Studies) and the Interview Board love asking direct, rapid-fire questions about institutional architecture.

“Who compiles the WPI?” “Which division releases the IIP?” “Who calculates the Minimum Support Price?”

If you hesitate on these questions, it leaves a poor impression. To ensure you never make a mistake, we have created the Ultimate Quick Lookup Table of Agencies. Bookmark this page, take a screenshot, and revise this the night before your exam!

Read here Last Part 19: Final Revision – Important Formula Cheat Sheet

The Ultimate “Who Releases What” Cheat Sheet

1. The Macro-Economy (GDP & Production)

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Released by the National Accounts Division (NAD) under the National Statistical Office (NSO), MoSPI.
• Index of Industrial Production (IIP): Released monthly by the Economic Statistics Division (ESD) under the NSO, MoSPI.
• Index of Eight Core Industries: Released monthly by the Office of Economic Adviser (OEA), DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  (Note: It is released prior to the IIP and constitutes 40.27% of it!).
• Annual Survey of Industries (ASI): Data collection is done by Field Operations Division (FOD);
  • Part-I data (Economic) is processed by the Enterprise Survey Division (EnSD) / IS Wing of DQAD, Kolkata;
  • Part-II data (Labour) is processed by the Labour Bureau.

2. Inflation & Prices (The CPI vs WPI Battle)

• Wholesale Price Index (WPI): Compiled and released by the Office of Economic Adviser (OEA), DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Consumer Price Index (Rural/Urban/Combined): Compiled and released by the Price Statistics Division (PSD) under the NSO, MoSPI.
• CPI for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW): Compiled by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment.
• CPI for Agricultural/Rural Labourers (CPI-AL/RL): Compiled by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment.

3. People, Employment, and Demography

• Population Census: Conducted decennially by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (ORGI), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
• Vital Statistics (SRS and CRS): The Civil Registration System and Sample Registration System are both administered by the ORGI, Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS): Conducted by the Household Survey Division (HSD) and Field Operations Division (FOD) under the NSO, MoSPI.
• All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES/QES): Conducted by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment.
• National Family Health Survey (NFHS): Nodal agency is the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

4. Agriculture & Trade

• Minimum Support Price (MSP): Recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Agriculture Census: Conducted quinquennially by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• Livestock Census: Conducted quinquennially by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries.
• Trade Statistics (Imports/Exports): Compiled and disseminated by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S), Kolkata, under the Ministry of Commerce.

5. Global & Environmental Goals

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – National Indicator Framework (NIF): Developed and monitored by the Social Statistics Division (SSD) under the NSO, MoSPI.
• SDG India Index (State Rankings): Prepared by NITI Aayog.
• Environmental Accounting (EnviStats India): Compiled and released annually by the Social Statistics Division (SSD) under the NSO, MoSPI.

A Final Message to the ISS Aspirants

From the founding vision of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis in the 1950s to the AI-driven Data Innovation Labs of today, the Indian Statistical System is an awe-inspiring machinery.

By reading this 20-blog series, you have not just memorized facts for an exam; you have understood the very nervous system of the Indian Government. When you clear this exam and walk into the corridors of Khurshid Lal Bhawan or Mahalanobis Bhawan, you will be the one calculating the GDP, revising the inflation weights, and tracking the pulse of 1.4 billion people.

Take a deep breath, trust your preparation, and remember the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. You are ready.

Go out there and make the nation proud. Best of luck for the UPSC ISS Examination!