Examine the opportunities and the privacy and methodological concerns of integrating alternate data sources such as mobile and e-commerce data into official statistics.

Alternate data are digital traces that daily activity leaves behind, such as mobile phone, scanner and e-commerce records. The Cabinet-approved VISTAR scheme (Rs.4,371.10 crore, 2026-31) plans to use them to supplement surveys [1]. They could make data much faster, but privacy and methods need to catch up first.

Opportunities

• Timeliness: near real-time signals on consumption, prices and mobility help VISTAR's goal of a "dynamic, real-time" statistical system [1].
• Lower respondent burden: digital records can supplement surveys instead of repeated household visits [1].
• Granularity: location-rich data can support the district and million-plus city estimates targeted under SSS 2.0 [1].
• Proven path: MoSPI already uses administrative data such as VAHAN and PFMS in national accounts [2].
• Services coverage: digital transaction data could help track services, for which a new Headline Index of Services Production is proposed [1].

Privacy Concerns

• Consent and purpose limitation: private firms collect mobile and e-commerce data for commercial ends. Reusing them for statistics must comply with the DPDP Act, 2023 [3].
• Re-identification: location trails can identify people even after names are removed.
• Trust deficit: VISTAR promises "privacy by design" [1], but it has not yet set out operational safeguards. If people fear surveillance, they may resist sharing data.

Methodological Concerns

• Selection bias: digital data over-represent urban, connected and formal users. They under-count rural households, women and informal traders.
• Dependence on private data: firms can change formats or withdraw access, which threatens continuity.
• Series breaks: new methods weaken comparability. MoSPI itself asks users to account for the PLFS 2025 revamp when comparing with earlier rounds [4].
• Validation: the data need benchmarking against survey frames such as the 8th Economic Census and the Statistical Business Register [1].

Alternate data can complement, not replace, the survey backbone. The way forward needs four steps: data-sharing protocols aligned with the DPDP Act, anonymisation standards, overlap periods that publish linking series, and independent vetting of new methods. That vetting needs a statutorily empowered National Statistical Commission, as the Rangarajan Commission envisaged [5]. With these safeguards, India's statistics can be both fast and trusted, which is what evidence-based policy for Viksit Bharat 2047 needs.