National Sample Survey Organisation

The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), is an organization under the Ministry of Statistics of the Government of India. It is the largest organisation in India conducting regular socio-economic surveys. It was established in 1950.

Employees of NSSO belong to Indian Statistical service(appointment through Union Public Service commission) and Subordinate statistical service(appointment through staff selection commission).

NSSO has four divisions:

The Survey Design and Research Division (SDRD) is a professional organ of NSSO, mandated to do the job of:

SDRD, NSSO is located at Mahalanobis Bhavan, Kolkata and is headed by an Additional Director General - a Higher Administrative Grade (HAG) level officer, and has sanctioned strength of three SAG (Senior Administrative Grade), fifteen JAG (Junior Administrative Grade), eight STS (Senior Time Scale) and four JTS (Junior Time Scale) level officers of Indian Statistical Service besides one Deputy Director (Administration) and the supporting staff members.

The Field Operations Division (FOD), one of the four Divisions of the National Sample Survey Office, is responsible for conducting surveys in the field of Socio- Economic, Industrial Statistics, Agricultural Statistics, Prices, etc. as per the approved programmes. It is also responsible for updating the frame for conducting Socio-Economic Surveys in urban areas. This Division with its Headquarters located at New Delhi and Faridabad functions through a network of 6 Zonal Offices, 49 Regional Offices and 116 Sub-Regional Offices spread throughout the country and has staff strength of about 4000.

The Division is headed by Additional Director General (ADG), an Additional Secretary Level Officer. In Headquarters, four Deputy Director Generals as well as other officers in the rank of Director/ Joint Director/ Deputy Director/ Assistant Director assist him. All the Zonal Offices are headed by Deputy Director Generals while the head of Regional Offices are Deputy Director General/ Director level officers except for Port Blair which is headed by Assistant Director.

The Data Processing Division (DPD) NSSO with headquarters at Kolkata and five data processing centres outside Kolkata at Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Giridih and Nagpur are primarily mandated to undertake the processing, the tabulation and the dissemination of data collected through Nationwide Large Scale Sample Surveys on various Socio-economic issues conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Government of India. This task of transforming large volume of raw data into the final form of Key Indicators or Estimates in Tabular Format with due process of scrutiny and validation is carried out by a large number of trained and experienced technical officials in Electronic Data Processing Cadre under the overall supervision and guidance of the officers of Indian Statistical Service. The role of DPD starts from the initial stage of formulation of the Sample Design for NSS Surveys by SDRD wherein apart from providing input for the formulation it has to undertake the job of sample selection. Later on DPD undertakes the job of software development for Data Entry, Data Verification, Computer Edit, Other Data Validations, Howler Checks, Tabulation, etc. DPD also assists the States by providing complete IT solutions in all their data processing related activities and also through periodic training/workshop and other interactive methods.

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