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94 THE JOURNAL OF INCOME AND WEALTH Accepting this recommendation of the Committee, the Government of India transferred the entire establishment of NIU, then working for the National Income Committee, to the Ministry of Finance to take charge of the national income work, on a regular basis. The NIU was subsequently transferred to the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in 1954 and later a full-fledged National Income Division (NID) was created in the CSO. The NID is now designated as the National Accounts Division (NAD) in conformity with the expansion of its activity, beyond mere compilation of national income. While executing its responsibilities, the National Income Committee received the advisory help of international experts namely, Professor Simon Kuznets, National Bureau of Economic Research, USA; Prof. J.R.N. Stone, Department of Applied Economics, University of Cambridge and Dr. J.B.D. Derksen, National Income Unit, United Nations Statistical Office. www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 115.248.73.67 on dated 29-Nov-2010 Prof. Simon Kuznets reviewed comprehensively the national income estimates and related aggregates of India and presented his report in January, 1957 wherein he offered several suggestions mainly relating to (a) status of national income as it emerged in the report of the National Income Committee and annual publications, National Accounts Statistics (b) other aspects and distribution of national income which need to be included in this publication on regular basis, (c) timing of national income estimates and character of their presentation and (d) institutional arrangements. He reiterated the suggestions of National Income Committee for setting up of an Advisory Committee comprising of established authorities, to guide the future course of action and allied matters relating to the estimation of national income and related aggregates. He emphasized that Advisory Committee members should be given the opportunity to shape the course of work in this field which is of utmost importance to the development of economic intelligence in the country. Prof. J.R.N. Stone who visited India in 1950-51 as an Adviser to the then National Income Committee did considerable work on factor breakdowns of national income, some results of which were incorporated in one of the working papers of the NIU entitled “Memorandum on the Forms of Accounts” January, 1951 (mimeo). The National Income Committee in its First Report submitted in April, 1951 presented estimates of net output of Indian Union for 1948-49 along with a framework of social accounts which was drawn up by Prof. J.R.N. Stone. In its Final Report, submitted in February 1954, the Committee gave the detailed methodology for compilation of sectoral estimates and the national income estimates for the years 1948-49 (improved), 1949-50 and 1950-51. III.Conventional Series of NAS (with base 1948-49) Following the work of Prof. J.R.N. Stone, research on national accounts in India was undertaken by many scholars. Two of the earliest papers on the subject were by Dandekar (1951) and Ghosh (1951), the former discussing conceptual questions and the latter presenting a national accounting framework. The First Report of the NIC (1951) presented a simple system in which some entries were left blank. Mukherjee (1954 a) attempted to fill in some of the gaps with almost notional entries and suggested separate urban and rural accounts with a connecting link. Mukherjee (1954 b) also developed a framework of a complete interflow matrix of the type used by Ragnar Frisch. Barpujari (1960) first presented complete national accounts for India for the years 1951-52 to 1955-56 in which the framework given by
COMPILATION OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS STATISTICS IN INDIA 95 NIC was used. Economic accounts for developing countries were discussed by Mukherjee, Uma Datta Roy Choudhury and Prasada Rao (1975). As per the methodology and the pattern of presentation recommended by the National Income Committee, the first official estimates of national income were prepared by the CSO with base year 1948-49 for the estimates at constant prices. These estimates at constant (1948-49) prices along with the corresponding estimates at current prices and the accounts of the Public Authorities were published in the publication, “Estimates of National Income” in 1956. This series, commonly known as the “conventional series” continued to be published till 1966 under the same title. www.IndianJournals.com Members Copy, Not for Commercial Sale Downloaded From IP - 115.248.73.67 on dated 29-Nov-2010 IV. First Revision of NAS Series (Base year 1960-61) With the gradual improvement in the availability of basic data over the years, a review of methodology for national income estimation and its extension to other fields of macro economic aggregates was undertaken, with a view to update the database and shifting the base year from 1948-49 to a more recent year. Special efforts in this regard were made for a comprehensive review of all available data, both published and unpublished. The first results of these efforts were presented in the “National Income Statistics-Proposals for a Revised Series for national Income Estimates, 1955-56 – 1959-60 (CSO, 1961)”. These proposals were discussed at a specially organized seminar under the auspices of the Indian Association for Research in National Income and Wealth (IARNIW). In the light of the views expressed in the Seminar, several follow up studies were undertaken. The proposals, as improved/amended on the basis of the studies, alongwith estimates as per the revised series of national income with 1960-61 as new base for estimates at constant prices were published in the “Brochure on the Revised Series of National Product, 1960-61 to 1964-65 (CSO, 1967)” replacing the earlier series with base 1948-49. Simultaneously, work on the estimation of related aggregates like “capital formation” and saving for the years 1960-61 to 1965-66 was also undertaken. These estimates were published with corresponding methodology in two special brochures, (i) “National Income Statistics – Estimates of Capital Formation in India, 1960-61 (hereafter referred to as 1960-61 series), the title of the annual publication was changed to “Estimates of National Product”. The coverage of the publication was extended gradually from time to time to incorporate the estimates of private consumption expenditure, saving, capital formation, factor incomes, consolidated accounts of the nation and detailed accounts of public sector. The title of the publication was, therefore, again changed to the present title “ National Accounts Statistics” (NAS) with effect from January 1975 to depict the expanded scope of the publication. Further, to meet the demand of the users a special supplement, “National Accounts Statistics, 1960-61 to 1972-73 – Disaggregated Tables (CSO, 1975)” was brought out. This publication included disaggregated tables on output, input, value added, private consumption expenditure, saving and capital formation. While the publication presented the estimates at current prices for the years 1960-61 to 1972-73, those at constant (1960-61) prices were presented for the entire period of 1950-51 to 1972-73. From the subsequent issue, the NAS, 1976, all those tables presented in the special supplement became regular features of the publication, NAS.
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