Cabinet approves the VISTAR scheme to rebuild India's official statistical system

4 November 2026

The Union Cabinet has cleared the Viksit Bharat Initiative - Statistical Transformation, Analysis and Research Scheme, called VISTAR, with an outlay of Rs 4,371.10 crore for FY 2026-27 to FY 2030-31. The scheme belongs to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and is meant to make official data quicker, standardised and usable by machines. It plans 59 surveys during the Sixteenth Finance Commission period, against 43 major surveys conducted earlier. A second component gives states and union territories money and technical help to produce district and local level estimates, including for the Periodic Labour Force Survey and the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey. The third component will run the Eighth Economic Census, covering every non-agricultural establishment and its workers down to gram panchayat and ward level. That census will also become the base for a National Statistical Business Register. New measures such as an Index of Production of Services and an Index of Unorganised Sector Enterprises are part of the plan.