Latest news with #NationalStatisticalCommission
Indian Express
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Need to address statistical issues in entrance, recruitment exams: NSC Chairman to government
The government has been called on to form a comprehensive policy on certain statistical issues related to entrance and recruitment exams by Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar, Chairman of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), who argued on Sunday that different agencies conducting their own exams have their own methods that can lead to dissatisfaction among candidates and legal proceedings. Speaking at the 19th Statistics Day organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Karandikar said statistical issues such as negative marking and normalisation of marks in examinations that are being conducted online and see lakhs of candidates should be addressed 'appropriately'. 'The fact that when such a large number (of candidates) appear (for exams), we don't have computer systems which simultaneously 27 lakh candidates can write,' Karandikar said, referring to an earlier recruitment exam held by the railways. 'So we have parallel exams, or exams in phases, different question papers. Then the question comes: how do we compare them? This is a strictly statistical question.' 'Somehow, each agency goes on its own way to define the policy: there is a question of negative marking, normalisation. And each agency declares its own formula which is different. That leads to dissatisfaction, especially from the candidates that don't make it, some of them making it to the court system,' the NSC Chairman added. In 2019, Karandikar was part of an expert committee constituted by the Supreme Court to suggest ways to deal with fraud in online examinations. The committee – led by retired Supreme Court justice GS Singhvi – was formed after the alleged leak of the Staff Selection Commission's Combined Graduate Level 2017 question papers, which led to massive protests. On Sunday, Karandikar said the expert committee had written a report just before COVID 'and perhaps that report is lying somewhere'. 'The point is that normalisation and negative marking, both are statistical questions. And perhaps – which body in government, I don't know, because there are multiple stakeholders – comprehensive effort should be made to create one group which gives thought to all this, brings in all the stakeholders, and comes out with one policy,' Karandikar added. 'Precision policymaking' Moderating a panel discussion at the Statistics Day event – held to commemorate the birth anniversary of famed statistician PC Mahalanobis – Shamika Ravi, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said India was moving into an era of 'precision policymaking'. According to Ravi, given the size of the country, indicators such as the infant mortality rate and even the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) don't mean much at an all-India level, although such measures are needed for comparisons. 'But the reality is, policymaking largely depends on highly localised estimates, which is the effort we are now doing. We are moving towards district-level estimates because a lot of policymaking requires local, unbiased, as precise or as close to the truth – that's what an unbiased estimate is… We are moving into the realm of what is called precision policymaking. And precision policymaking, then and therefore, requires data which is representative at the local level, whatever local we define. We have now moved beyond aspirational districts to aspirational blocks,' Ravi said. Also speaking at the same event, MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg said it was essential the statistics ministry produces data which is 'machine readable' given the advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning and follows basic standards and norms so that data can be more effectively used for decision making. Towards this, the ministry is looking at data and statistics at a much broader level, Garg said, with a focus on ensuring that the data produced by different departments and ministries within the government – or administrative data – is focused and usable. Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy. ... Read More
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Business Standard
a day ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Come up with uniform policy on normalisation of marks: NSC chief Karandikar
In a move that may benefit millions of students appearing for various recruitment and entrance examinations across the country, National Statistical Commission (NSC) chairman Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar has urged the government to come up with a uniform policy for the normalisation of marks and negative marking. 'A comprehensive effort should be made to create one group... which will bring all stakeholders on board, give thought to this [problem] and come up with one policy [on normalisation]. This is strictly a statistical issue and should be addressed appropriately,' said Karandikar while speaking at the 19th National Statistics Day on Sunday. Normalisation of marks is a statistical process used to adjust scores in exams conducted in multiple shifts or sessions, where different question papers may have varying difficulty levels. The process aims to ensure a level playing field for all candidates by accounting for these variations in difficulty, so that students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by the specific paper they received. 'Millions of candidates appear for exams. It is not possible to conduct such examinations at one place in one sitting in the traditional way. Hence, computer-based exams become the norm and these often stretch over multiple days and sessions. This means different question papers for different students. So, the question arises as to how we should compare it. Somehow, each agency goes on its own and declares its own formula, which is different. This leads to dissatisfaction among people who don't make it, leading to litigation. This has been going on for [many years],' added Karandikar. In December last year, thousands of students had come out in protest against the anticipated normalisation process in the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam. Earlier, in August, students had also staged protests in the wake of the normalisation process used to announce the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) results. Highlighting the current malaise where the normalisation process often leads to litigation from disgruntled candidates, Karandikar told Business Standard that devising a 'good' formula is important as students cannot be engaged in incessant litigation. 'Sometimes, it has been observed that the selected candidates belong to those appearing in one or two particular shifts and days, while some sessions remain highly under-represented. Hence, coming up with a uniform formula is important at least for central government-conducted examinations,' he added. Besides, Karandikar also proposed the User Verifiable Digital Audit Trail (UVDAT) mechanism to validate votes for online corporate voting and recommended the formation of a dedicated panel to address this issue. Also speaking at the event, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) secretary Saurabh Garg said that by the end of this year, the ministry will begin releasing quarterly data on the informal economy, based on its Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE). 'The ministry has also reduced the timeline for releasing reports to 45 days now, which was earlier anywhere between 8–9 months,' added Garg.
