Data anomaly in mining statistics of India

Abstract

Comparison of official statistics on mining reveals that there are different agencies that are collecting and disseminating data on the mining sector, but there also exists data anomaly between different agencies. For the purpose of detecting data anomaly in the mining sector, official statistics provided by three government agencies are examined. The variation in the number of mining workers (both organized and unorganized sector) ranges from 2.2 million to 0.54 million to 0.52 million in 2011 between the National Sample Survey Organisation, the Director General of Mines Safety, and the Indian Bureau of Mines which clearly indicates the differences in methods for collecting and collating of official statistics.