New Delhi, June 23 : The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has constituted a Technical Expert Group (TEG) under the chairmanship of Dr. Surjit S. Bhalla, former Executive Director of India, International Monetary Fund to guide the National Statistics Office towards conducting an all-India income distribution survey, tentatively scheduled for 2026, according to an official statement issued on Monday.

The Expert Group will provide guidance with regard to finalisation of concepts and definitions, preparation of the survey method and instruments, sampling design and method of estimation, and incorporate best country practices as adopted across the world. The survey will also strive to assess the impact of the adoption of technology on household income (wages). The TEG will also provide guidance for finalisation of the survey results and report for release, the statement said.

In addition to having a Chairman and several official members from MoSPI and different Ministries and Departments of the Centre, the other members of the Technical Expert Group are as follows: Aloke Kar, former Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, Prof Sonalde Desai, National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, Prof Praveen Jha, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU, Prof Srijit Mishra, School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, Dr Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist, National Stock Exchange of India, Dr. Rajesh Shukla, Managing Director & CEO, People Research on India's Consumer Economy and Prof Ram Singh, Director, Delhi School of Economics.

The TEG may enlist the assistance of subject matter experts within and/ or outside the government and may co-opt them as members according to necessity, with the approval from the competent authority. It may invite subject experts in the meeting as special invitees, if necessary, in order to meet specific requirements, the statement said.

The expert group has been appointed as the MoSPI's earlier experience from surveys that were attempted showed that there were difficulties in collecting reliable income data in the field. The TEG is expected to help overcome all these issues and have more clarity in the survey procedures and to oversee the overall activities of the Household Income Survey, and also in view of the experiences of surveys conducted by countries like Australia, USA, Canada and South Africa, the statement added.

/IANS