Department of Economics And Statistics

Origin and Growth

The Department of Economics and Statistics in its present form actually originated from a small Statistical section headed by a qualified statistician in the office of the Board of Revenue in 1933. The section was then brought under the control of the Director of Industries and Commerce for the purpose of collection and dissemination of information on Industries, but again transferred to the Board of Revenue. Later, the Statistical activity of the section was extended to cover the important sectors of the State economy and hence brought under the control of the Economic Adviser to Government of Tamil Nadu in the Public Department. Then the Department of Statistics, as the State Statistical Bureau of Tamil Nadu, was set up in 1953 as a separate department with the Director as the administrative head.

The Department of Statistics initially functioned under the Administrative control of various Secreterial departments such as Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries and Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department. At present it is under the administrative control of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Department with effect from 1988. The present name “Department of Economics and Statistics” came into effect from 1996 onwards.

At the State level, the department is presently headed by the Special Commissioner and Director in the cadre of Indian Administrative Service who is assisted by one Additional Director, One Joint Director (Drawn from State Civil Service) for Administration, three Joint Directors, two Deputy Directors and seventeen Assistant Directors with necessary complement of staff on technical side.

Three Regional offices with jurisdiction of districts as given below were set up in the year 1980-81. The Regional offices are manned by Deputy Directors and are assisted by a complement of technical and ministerial staff.

Region	Districts Covered
Chennai	Chennai, Kancheepauram, Tiruvallur, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Vellore, Villupuram, Thiruvarur and Thiruvannamalai
Salem	Salem, Tiruchirapalli, Karur, Perambalur, Namakkal, Ariyalur, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri,Coimbatore, Erode and The Nilgiris.
Madurai	Madurai, Dindigul, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Sivagangai, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Kanniyakumari and Pudukottai.

In each district there is an Assistant Director assisted by Statistical Officers, Statistical Inspectors and Assistant Statistical Investigators and also by Ministerial Staff.

From 1964 to August 1981, there were Taluk Statistical Inspectors in each Taluk of the district to attend the scheme works. With effect from 1.9.1981, the concept of Block Level Statistics collection system came into effect and presently there is one Divisional Statistical Officer in each of the 72 Revenue Divisions and one Block Statistical Inspector in each of the 385 Development Blocks.

Functions

The Department of Economics and Statistics is the nodal agency for both State and Centre, as State Statistical Bureau of Tamil Nadu, for coordinating Statistical activities in the State and is responsible for collection, compilation, tabulation and publication of statistics relating to all sectors of the economy such as Agriculture, Industries, Prices, Housing, State Income, etc., It is also responsible for the conduct of Crop Estimation Surveys, construction of Index Numbers of Industrial Production and Prices, preparation of State District, Block and Municipal Hand Books, Conduct of Annual Survey of Industries, National Sample Survey, Agricultural Census, Economic Census, etc.

The Assistant Director of Statistics in the Districts is responsible for the collection and submission of Statistics at the District level, besides supervision of the Statistical work at the district level.

Name of the Scheme being implemented in the Department

Statistical Units in other Departments

Statistical cells manned by the officers deputed by this Department are functioning in various Departments for monitoring and evaluation of schemes as well as coordination of works in the respective departments such as Rural Development, Civil Supplies, Police, Transport, Commercial Taxes, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Co-operative Societies, Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project, Municipal Administration, Land Administration, Rehabilitation, etc., The Department provides technical guidance to these statistical cells whenever required.

Statistical Publications

The Department publishes various reports as detailed below.

List of Publications/ Reports