India will launch its first nationwide Household Income Survey in February 2026, offering policymakers direct data on earnings from salaries, farms, businesses, investments, and informal jobs, addressing a long-standing gap in income, inequality, and taxation statistics.The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), via the National Sample Survey (NSS), is driving the initiative. Past attempts in the 1950s, ’60s, and 1983–84 failed due to flawed methods and underreporting. This time, an eight-member Technical Expert Group (TEG), chaired by economist Dr Surjit S. Bhalla, former IMF Executive Director and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, is steering the process. The committee includes Aloke Kar, a former professor at ISI Kolkata; Prof. Sonalde Desai from NCAER; Prof. Praveen Jha of JNU; Prof. Srijit Mishra from the University of Hyderabad; Dr Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist at NSE; Dr Rajesh Shukla, Managing Director and CEO of PRICE; and Prof. Ram Singh, Director of the Delhi School of Economics and an external member of the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee. Together, they are tasked with setting definitions, designing tools, refining sampling strategies, estimating income metrics, and incorporating best practices from countries like the US, Australia, Canada, and South Africa.
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