Articles by Jatinder S Bedi

The unemployment rate in the country increased sharply to 6.1%, as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017–18 data, from 2.2%, based on the National Sample Survey, 68th round, 2011–12. A few have raised questions regarding methodological differences, mainly concerning the second-stage household sample stratification procedure not adopted in proportion to the respective population share. In the PLFS, this stratification is based on the number of matriculates per household and, in the NSS 68th round, on the level of per capita expenditure. It is found that the results obtained in each of these data sets are robust for the strata on the basis of which the surveys were conducted, respectively, and hence, both are reliable and comparable.

It is important to remove the discrepancies in data in the various segments of the manufacturing sector, namely, factory, non-factory, small, medium and large-scale sectors, to have a proper estimate of the state of manufacturing. These have an important bearing on estimates of the performance of the sector and have long-term implications from the policy and planning perspective. This study makes use of unit-wise Annual Survey of Industries and National Sample Survey Organisation unorganised manufacturing sector data for 2000-01. The decision to upgrade the economic indicator series of the National Accounts Statistics to base year 1999-2000 from 1993-94 seems to have not taken into account the best possible options to upgrade base year weights.