UPSCpedia: Economedia: National Sample Survey Office

• The National Sample Survey Organisation, now National Sample Survey Office is an organization in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
• The National Sample Survey (NSS), initiated in the year 1950, In March 1970, the NSS was reorganised and all aspects of its work were brought under a single Government organisation, namely the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).
• The Governing Council consisted of experts from within and outside the Government and was headed by an eminent economist/statistician
• NSSO is involved in three types of surveys.
  1. Socio-economic surveys
  2. Annual Survey of Industries
  3. Agricultural surveys
• In case of socio-economic surveys the entire responsibility of the survey from its design to release of the report is the responsibility of NSSO. In case of the other two activities the organisation is entrusted with collection of data from the field only.
• NSSO consists of four divisions, each headed by an Additional Director General:
  1. Field Operation Division
  2. Data Processing Division
  3. Survey Design & Research Division
  4. Coordination & Publication Division
• The head quarter of NSSO is located at New Delhi. It has a few regional headquarters also. 

  • The Field Operations Division has its headquarters at Delhi.

  • The Data Processing Division with its headquarters in Kolkata which is entrusted with the responsibilities of data entry, processing and tabulation of socio-economic data.

  • The Survey Design and Research Division having responsibility of designing the questionnaire, sample design, etc. and analyse the results has its headquarters at Kolkata. 

  • The Coordination and Publication Division is located at New Delhi.
• The survey has generated few interesting indicators that are otherwise not available from regular sources. Literacy rate (15+ population), distribution of persons (aged 15 years and above) by level of education attainment, distribution of students of age group 5-24 by primary, middle, secondary/higher secondary and higher education, gross, net (classes I-V & VI-VIII) and age-specific (age 6-10 & 11–13 years) attendance ratio, proportion of students getting free education by level of education, average amount of per capita private expenditure on education and proportions of attending, attended and never attended children by age group are some of the important indicators.