THEBUSINESSBYTES BUREAU

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 4, 2026

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved a Rs 4,371.10-crore central sector scheme aimed at transforming India's official statistical system through artificial intelligence, digital technologies, enhanced data collection and research, with a focus on building a future-ready data ecosystem.

The ‘Viksit Bharat Initiative for Statistical Transformation, Analytics & Research (VISTAR)’ will be implemented during the five-year period from 2026-27 to 2030-31 and is aligned with the government's vision of achieving Viksit Bharat 2047.

The ambitious initiative seeks to establish a dynamic, real-time and future-ready official statistical architecture by improving the timeliness, granularity and interoperability of datasets, while ensuring harmonised and AI-ready data systems.

The scheme will encompass all statistical and data management activities of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), providing strategic flexibility to allocate resources in response to emerging policy requirements and strengthening the country's statistical infrastructure.

VISTAR will have three major components — Comprehensive Statistical Operations and Strengthening of Ecosystem, Support for Statistical Strengthening (SSS), and Economic Census (EC).

Under the first component, MoSPI plans to conduct 59 surveys during the 16th Finance Commission cycle, up from 43 major surveys undertaken previously, in a move expected to address critical data gaps across sectors and facilitate more informed decision-making and targeted policy interventions.

The ministry will also accelerate the end-to-end digitalisation of statistical processes and integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into routine workflows, particularly in data processing, validation and analysis.

As part of efforts to expand the country's statistical coverage, MoSPI plans to introduce new indicators, including the Headline Index of Services Production and the Index of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises.

The initiative will also focus on strengthening data harmonisation through cataloguing, machine readability, interoperability, standardised sharing protocols and privacy-by-design principles. These measures are expected to break down data silos, minimise duplication, improve the targeting of government programmes and facilitate AI-driven decision-making across different levels of administration.

Significantly, the scheme will promote the use of alternative data sources, including mobile phone, scanner and e-commerce data, to complement conventional surveys, reduce the burden on respondents and bridge existing information gaps.

The government will also expand capacity-building opportunities for students and young researchers through internship programmes and research proposals from academic and research institutions.

Under the Support for Statistical Strengthening component, funds will be extended to State and Union Territory governments through a redesigned, deliverable-linked framework, SSS 2.0, to modernise and strengthen their statistical capabilities.

The component aims to enable states to generate high-quality and granular data at district and other disaggregated levels, develop indigenous data-processing capabilities and integrate data-driven use cases into local policymaking.

MoSPI will provide technical assistance to expand the generation of district-level and million-plus city-level estimates under major national surveys, including the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) and Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE).

The initiative will also support the compilation of State and District Domestic Product estimates and State-level Index of Industrial Production (IIP), strengthening the availability of reliable economic data at the sub-national level.

A major highlight of VISTAR will be the conduct of the eighth Economic Census in collaboration with State and Union Territory governments.

The exercise will generate granular information on all non-farm establishments and the workers engaged therein, extending up to the Gram Panchayat and Ward levels. It is expected to provide a comprehensive assessment of the country's unorganised sector and serve as the baseline for developing a National Statistical Business Register (SBR).

The proposed register will facilitate targeted enterprise surveys and enable more strategic interventions for the business ecosystem.

The Economic Census data will be particularly valuable for planners and policymakers at both national and sub-national levels, besides providing an important foundation for estimating the contribution of the unorganised sector to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).