E-commerce prices, mobile data for tourism & night lights data to become part of MoSPI’s new approach of tracking economy

Besides a tourism survey, MoSPI is launching a National Household Travel Survey from January 2025.

The ministry of statistics and programme implementation is looking for ways to tap alternative data sources, like night lights data and e-commerce prices, for its surveys.

“We are trying to collaborate with researchers to use alternative data sources,” Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said on November 29, at an event organised by Centre for Economic Data and Analysis of Ashoka University.

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Moneycontrol had earlier reported that the ministry had approached quick commerce platforms to share data on prices of products for collection of CPI data.

Sources had told Moneycontrol that MoSPI was moving closer in its endeavour, with one of the players responding to its queries and asking for more information a year after the ministry sent queries to capture online prices of products.

The new CPI series, which the ministry will launch in February 2026, will also track spending on e-commerce, PlayStations, mobile phone accessories like Bluetooth earphones and online video subscriptions.

The ministry is also inviting proposals to see if mobile data can be used to collect information on tourism statistics. The ministry is to launch the tourism survey from next year.

Besides, it's also looking to tap satellite data for night lights to estimate economic development, infrastructure development and impact on job creation.

The ministry trying to tap different sources for data collection.

Besides a tourism survey, MoSPI is launching a National Household Travel Survey from January 2025.

It recently announced forward looking survey on capex to track data on capex spends.