The Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Government of Assam was established in the year 1948 and is presently functioning under Planning & Development Department, Government of Assam.

The establishment of the Directorate of Economics & Statistics comprises with its sub-ordinate establishment in twenty (20) districts and fourteen (14) sub-divisions besides two (2) regional establishments, one at Diphu for the two (2) Hill Districts(N.C.Hills & Karbi Anglong) and the other at  Kokrajhar for the four (4) Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) districts of the State. There are also some Statistical units/ Cells in other Departments of the State Government manned by the statistical personnel drawn from different cadres of the Directorate under their administrative control.

Right to Information Act, 2005

Right to Information (R.T.I) Act, 2005 is an important milestone in the growth of the democratic system in our country. It has removed the wall of secrecy built against the common people by those holding the authority. The Act makes it statutory for the latter to reveal all information when required by an ordinary citizen of the country. However, the success of the Act requires enlightenment of those who hold the authority and those who want to avail information for their betterment or for the welfare of the society at large.

Right to Information Act came into force fully on the 12th October 2005. The Act. extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Information means any material in any form including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions,  press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data materials held in any electronic form.

Every State Government shall, by notification in the official Gazette, constitute a body known as the State Information Commission to exercise the powers conferred on, and to perform the functions assigned to under this Act. The Directorate of Economics & Statistics and its subordinate officers have been implementing the R.T.I. Act.05 as per the instructions issued by the State Information Commission time to time since inception after implementation of the Act., the Directorate have received 10 (ten) numbers of request from the petitioners and all the requests were disposed by the SPIO of this Directorate.

EVENTS

Economic Survey

Economic Survey Assam’ 2010-11, a yearly publication, published by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Assam was formally inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Tarun Gogoi on 13th July'2011 at a brief inaugural function in the Assembly Secretariat.

National Statistics Day

A day long programme of National Statistics Day was observed on 29th June 2011, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Late Prof. P. C. Mohalanobis, Father of modern Indian Statistical System, by the National Sample Survey Office (NE Zone) in collaboration with the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Assam at the Training Hall of the Directorate, Jawaharnagar, Guwahati.

Main objective of the programme was to create awareness about the importance of Statistics. The Topic of discussion for this year was –‘Gender Statistics’.

The programme was inaugurated by Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Principal Secretary, Planning and Development Department, Government of Assam by lighting the earthen lamp and offering floral tribute to late Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis. The welcome address was put forward by P. K. Bhattacharjya, Director of Economics and Statistics, Assam. The Key Note address was presented by Siladitya Choudhury, Deputy Director General, NSSO (NE Zone). In his address he spoke about the significance of the Statistics Day. Deliberating the chief guest address, Kumar Sanjay Krishna, the Principal Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, Planning and Development Department, emphasized  the importance of quality statistics. The eminent Economist, Dr. M. P. Bezabruah, and Dr. K. Das, Prof. Statistics of Gauhati University shared their views on the importance of statistics in the context of gender statistics in the modern days.

In the second session of the programme two papers were presented on gender statistics by Dr. D. K. Dey, Joint Director of Census Operation, Government of India and Nirupama Talukdar, Senior Research Officer, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Assam. Dr. Dey presented his paper on Census Data, 2011, based on gender statistics. Ms Talukdar, in her presentation emphasized on present status of gender discrepancy prevailing in the society.

Conference of Central and State Statistical Organizations (COCSSO)
Background

In order to strengthen the coordination of statistical activities among the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, other Central Ministries and State Statistical Organisations, the Conference of Central and State Statistical Organisations (COCSSO) were organized for the first time in the year 1971. Earlier it was supposed to be organized once in every two years. Keeping in view the usefulness of the Conference, it has now been decided to have it every year. The 18th Conference of Central and State Statistical Organization (COCSSO) was held in Bhubneswar Orissa, during 24-25 January, 2011. A number of Recommendations have been taken in the conference for strengthening the Statistical System of the Country.

Conference of Commonwealth Statisticians, 2011

The role of Commonwealth Statisticians is to take forward the goals of the Commonwealth as set out in the Harare Declaration. The aim of the conference is to meet and work together among the statisticians of the commonwealth countries and allows the countries at all stages of development to come together in a non-political and non-confrontational environment to share skills, experience and expertise. The conference of commonwealth statisticians is generally held once in every five year. The last (14th Conference) Commonwealth Statisticians meet was held in 2005 at Cape Town, South Africa.

At the concluding session of the 14th Conference of Commonwealth Statisticians, it was unanimously decided/approved that India will host the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Statisticians in India in 2011. As a protocol, the host country handed over the “Bell” of the Conference of Commonwealth Statistician to the representative of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India. The Bell confers on the recipient the responsibility to host the next conference.

Accordingly the 15th Commonwealth Statisticians Conference was held at New Delhi during 7th February, 2011 to 10th February, 2011.

The Conference was attended by about 300-350  statisticians of the Commonwealth Countries, International Agencies, NGOs, participants from Government, State Government, Heads of all reputed Statistical Institutions etc. The Conference is one of the most important global conferences of official statisticians and is considered prestigious in the arena of statistics. Papers on the following Themes viz. Building Sustainable Statistical Capabilities, Demographic Transition, Environment and Economic Accounting, Identifying Bubbles, Measuring the progress in societies etc. were presented in the conference.