Fiscal prudence, agile systems to support Viksit Bharat goal: Vualnam

Fiscal prudence will give India a strong foundation for growth, especially in volatile times as the lliket few months, and help the country move towards its goal of Viksit Bharat, said V Vualnam, secretary, department of expenditure.

His counterpart in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Saurabh Garg, said that agility in data and systems would be “extremely necessary” if India wants to become a developed nation in 20 years.

Data needs to be machine-readable and interoperable, Garg said. Data harmonisation among government departments and states is also important, Garg said at an event organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India.

The statistics ministry is using artificial intelligence for analysing data and also to improve the quality of data collection at the enumeration level, Garg said. While the ministry is using AI increasingly, it is making sure the data used is reliable and that there are no “hallucinations,” Garg said.

“I think it (AI) is still an evolving area,” Garg said, adding that the statistics ministry is using AI “as long as we are able to ensure that the models work on data which is identified and verified.

Vualnam stressed on the need for capital expenditure to support growth, as the government has been doing for a few years now.

The Centre is also working with state governments to incentivise them to move towards more productive expenditure, Vualnam said.

The expenditure secretary said that the government is looking at how agri-stack can be used for better and more targeted distribution of fertilisers. “It is better targeted because we spend a lot on fertilisers, especially in India. So, how it goes to the exact farmers depending on the land that he is cultivating, depending on the crops that he is cultivating,” Vualnam said. He noted that around 300 government schemes are now under the government’s Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism.