About National Sample Survey Office
The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India has been in service to the nation since 1950. It has been instrumental in developing a strong database on various Socio-Economic parameters through its country wide sample surveys, which have helped the Central as well as State Governments in development planning and policy formulations. The major activities of the NSSO are performed by its four divisions namely the Survey Design and Research Division (SDRD), the Field Operations Division (FOD), the Data Processing Division (DPD) and the Coordination and Publication Division (CPD).
The Field Operations Division with its Hqrs. at New Delhi and Faridabad (Agricultural Wing) functions through a network of 6 Zonal Offices, 49 Regional Offices and 116 Sub-Regional Offices spread throughout the country. The FOD is responsible for:
- Collection of data through (i) Socio-economic Surveys, (ii) Annual Survey of Industries (iii) Price collection Surveys.
- Up-dation of Urban Frame Survey blocks.
- Provide technical guidance to states in the field of agriculture statistics for conducting area enumeration and crop cutting experiments.
- Providing in-service training to field staff.
- Adhoc surveys (important recent surveys-Non-profit Institutions and serving households, UNICEF survey on well being of women and children).
The Regional Office of FOD was established at Port Blair in 1982. This office has two wings, viz. Administrative Wing and Technical Wing. An Assistant Director, who is an officer of Indian Statistical Service is the head of office. In the technical wing this office has a sanctioned strength of 3 group B gazetted Superintending Officers and 7 group B non-gazetted Asst.Superintending Officers. In the administrative wing, the sanctioned strength is 1 Office Superintendent, 1 Jr.Translator, 2 UDC, 1 LDC, 1 Driver and 2 MTS
Activities of NSSO (FOD), Regional Office, Port Blair
I. Socio-Economic Survey
The Socio Economic Surveys are conducted in the form of rounds, each round being normally of one year duration. The surveys are conducted through enquiry method by qualified and trained field officials. Since its inception in 1982 this Regional Office has conducted surveys in these Islands on subjects like Consumer Expenditure, Employment-Unemployment, Participation and expenditure in education, Land and Live stock holding, Debt and investment, Situation Assessment of agricultural households, Health, Morbidity and Vital statistics, Manufacturing, Trade and Services in un-organized sector, Domestic Tourism and Housing condition. The data collected through these surveys provide series of statistical data to the planners on various socio-economic aspects. Some of these are:
- The household consumer expenditure survey provided poverty related information.
- The household employment-unemployment surveys provided figures on labour force, employment and un-employment, distribution of workers by level of education etc.
- The Survey on disabled persons provided estimates of the magnitude and size of various disabilities like loco-motor, visual, hearing, speech etc.
- The survey on housing condition provided basic data dealing with drinking water facility, sanitation facility etc.
- The survey on participation in education has provided valuable estimates on private expenditure on education.
- The Enterprise survey provided database on non-agricultural enterprises, which is used for estimation of National Income and Gross Fixed capital Formation, Input-output analysis, etc., at both National and State level, besides providing information on the economic condition of entrepreneurs working in manufacturing, trade and services in un-organized sector.
- Land and Livestock holdings survey provided qualitative information on land and livestock ownership and seasonal variation in operational holdings.
- Debt and Investment Survey provides estimates on stock of assets, incidence of indebtedness and household capital expenditure.
- Situation Assessment of Agricultural household provided estimates on Agricultural household’s income, well being and access to resources and modern technology.
II. Annual Survey of Industries (ASI)
Annual Survey of Industries is the principal source of Industrial Statistics. This survey is conducted annually under the statutory provisions of Collection of Statistics Act, 2008 (7 of 2009) and the rules framed thereunder in 2011.The frame of enterprises for the ASI is made available by the Chief Inspector of factories.
ASI covers all factories registered under section 2m (i) and 2m(ii) of Factories Act, 1948 and Bidi and cigar manufacturing establishments registered under Bidi and Cigar workers ( condition of employment ) Act, 1966. ASI is a record based enquiry. ASI data is collected in two parts viz. Part I relating to fixed capital, working capital, employment, emolument, consumption of fuels, lubricants and raw materials, other inputs/outputs, products and by-products while part II relates to mandays worked, labour turnover, absenteeism, labour cost etc.
Data collected from Annual Survey of Industries is used for estimating the contribution of GDP under the organized manufacturing sector. Also, Gross Capital Formation as well as Gross Fixed capital Formation are estimated using this ASI data.
Altogether, 23 units are covered under this survey in Andaman Nicobar Islands and information is collected from these units annually.
III. Urban Frame Survey
The Urban Frame Survey is a survey of preparation and updation of mutually exclusive and identifiable urban blocks with well defined natural/permanent boundaries which consists of around 80-200 households.
Under this survey, Towns in A&N Islands as per 2011 Census (i.e. Port Blair,Garacharama, Bambooflat, Prothrapore and Bakultala) have been divided into total 221 blocks. These urban blocks serve as first stage sampling units for different socio-economic surveys.
IV. Price Collection Survey
NSSO(FOD) undertakes the regular price collection work for 1114 quotations from 310 towns for generating Consumer Price Index(Urban). Consumer Price Index is used to measure the changes over time in the general level of retail prices of goods and services consumed by reference population.
In A&N Islands prices are being collected for 8 quotations from 3 towns on monthly basis.
NSSO Reports
Results of NSSO surveys are brought out in the form of NSS reports. Hard copies as well as soft copies of the published NSS reports are available on payment basis. The latest list of NSS reports available for sale is displayed at our website
www.mospi.nic.in. Summary Results are also published in Sarvekshana, a biannual technical journal of NSSO. Validated unit level data relating to various surveys of NSSO are available on magnetic media (CD-ROM) for sale at nominal price.
