The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a ₹4,371 crore scheme to overhaul the statistical architecture of the country at both the Central as well as State level, called the Viksit Bharat Initiative for Statistical Transformation, Analytics & Research (VISTAR) scheme, for the period 2026-27 to 2030-31.

“Aligned with the central objective of Viksit Bharat 2047, the VISTAR Scheme is designed to establish a dynamic, real-time and future-ready official statistical architecture for enhanced timeliness, data granularity, interoperability with harmonised and AI ready datasets,” the government said in a release.

As per the government, the VISTAR scheme will be divided into three components: Comprehensive statistical operations and strengthening of the ecosystem, Support for statistical strengthening, and an Economic Census.

Under the Comprehensive Statistical Operations and Strengthening of Ecosystem component, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has proposed to conduct 59 surveys during the 16th Finance Commission cycle, as compared to 43 major surveys conducted previously.

This, the government said, could potentially fill “critical data gaps in various sectors” and thereby improve decision-making and enable timely and targeted policy interventions.

“In addition, building on recent digital transformations in technology enabled data collection and user-centric dissemination, MoSPI will focus on the end-to-end digitalisation of statistical processes and embedding Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into regular workflows, primarily for data processing, validation, and analysis,” the government added.

Further, it added that, by mainstreaming alternate sources such as mobile phones, scanners, and e-commerce data, MoSPI will aim to complement traditional surveys, reduce respondent burden, fill data gaps, and strengthen evidence-based policymaking.

Under the support for statistical strengthening (SSS) component, the Centre will provide funds to State governments to help transform the statistical capabilities of States and Union Territories through a redesigned, deliverable-linked framework.

“The vision focuses on building state-level capacity to generate high-quality, granular data at the district and other disaggregated levels, developing indigenous data processing capabilities, and embedding data use cases into localized policymaking,” the government said.

MoSPI will also undertake the 8th Economic Census (EC) in collaboration with the States and Union Territories in order to obtain granular data and activity details of all the non-farm establishments and workers hired down to the gram panchayat and ward levels

This, the government said, would provide an assessment of the unorganised sector of the economy and will serve as the baseline for developing the National Statistical Business Register (SBR) to facilitate targeted enterprise surveys and strategic interventions.

“The economic census data will be extremely useful for planners and policy makers at national and sub-national levels, which will pave the way for estimating the contribution of the unorganised sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” the government said.