FM Sitharaman to Unveil NITI-NCAER Portal on State Finances on April 1

NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), has created a detailed digital repository that brings together important data on social, economic, and fiscal indicators. Spanning a period of almost 30 years (from financial years 1990-91 to 2022-23), the portal will be inaugurated on April 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The NITI NCAER State Finances portal also includes research reports, analytical studies, and expert opinions on state finances.

The move will increase the accessibility of data and give meaningful insights into India's economic environment at the state level, NITI Aayog said in a statement.

Key Features

The niti aayog portal is organized into four central constructs:

State Reports - Provide a glimpse into the macro and fiscal profile of the 28 Indian states by way of key indicators on demography, structures of economy, and socioeconomic, and fiscal performance parameters among others.

Data repository—A well-organised database granting direct access to corresponding but extensive datasets from five categories: demography, economic structure, fiscal, health and education.

State fiscal and economic dashboard –A visual tool characterized by fostering graphical representation of trends of key economic variables during a period. It gives quick access to raw data represented through summary tables and a data appendix.

Research and commentary -this section draws from broad field studies concerning the state finances, fiscal policies, financial management at state and even national levels. It gives expert views and policy perspectives.

Improving decision making based on data

It gives a comprehensive understanding of macroeconomic shifts, fiscal, demographic insight, and other socio-economic trends for policymakers, researchers, and analysts. This enhancement will help benchmark the data of each state against others and then against national figures. Further, it will provide a forum to policymakers, researchers, and interested others to allude to the data for informed debate and discussion" - the press release stated.

In carrying out its function as the "Central Research Hub", the portal provides its users the facility to observe historical trends, discover emerging patterns in the economy, and even contribute to arguments that are based on evidence.

Users will keep track of the progress, find emerging patterns, and develop new policies based on evidence through analysis of the historical trends and real-time analytics," said the press release.