The National Statistical Office (NSO) is the nodal statistical agency of the Government of India, functioning as an institution under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). Its origin lies in the government's decision on May 23, 2019, to merge two key statistical bodies: the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), to improve coordination, data quality, and efficiency in the statistical system. The merger was a follow-up to a similar recommendation made by the National Statistical Commission (NSC) in 2005, based on the report of the C. Rangarajan Committee.
The NSO is headed by the Chief Statistician of India (CSI), who also serves as the Secretary of MoSPI. Its core mechanism involves the collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination of official statistics at the national level. Key functions include compiling National Accounts Statistics, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and releasing major macroeconomic indicators like the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The NSO also conducts large-scale sample surveys on socio-economic indicators like employment and consumption through its Field Operations Division (FOD).
The NSO connects directly to the National Statistical Commission (NSC), which is mandated to evolve policies, priorities, and standards in statistical matters, acting as an overarching body. The NSO is the executive wing for statistics, while the NSC provides technical oversight. The recent change in 2019 replaced the separate functioning of the CSO and NSSO with a unified NSO, though the core statistical activities previously performed by the two bodies were retained within the new structure.