Official statistics and reality not one and the same, new techniques needed - DC

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Sep 12, 2014: Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim speaks at the inaugural function of a seminar on ’Statistical methods for practise’ at St Agnes College in Mangalore on Friday. College Principal Sr Marie Prem D’Souza, National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (Chennai) Statistics department Head Dr P Venkateshan and others look on.

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking after inaugurating the UGC sponsored two-day state-level seminar on ‘Statistical methods for practice,’ organised by the department of statistics at St Agnes College in Mangalore on September 12, DK DC A B Ibrahim opined that though official statistics are considered as one of the yardsticks of development, it need not necessarily reveal the real development picture as the official statistics and real statistics differ. There is a need to adopt techniques to interpret practical statistics.

The DC as an example stated  that in terms of statistics, Dakshina Kannada is considered a district with high literacy. But, even to this day, a large population relies upon thumb impression and the situation contradicts the statistics. He said, “The official statistics of Nirmal Bharath Abhiyan indictates that every house has a toilet in the district. But, during village visits, many people make requests for financial assistance from the side of government to build toilets, the misleading data can be be seen in various other fields as well.

Noting that several other parameters of development have been misleading,  A B Ibrahim said that in the present complex society, it has become very difficult to come to a conclusion as to where we stand by way of development.  “There are several dichotomies regarding poverty as well. The definition of poverty in terms of statistics is different than that of the real life situation. We see many instances where people avail loans, but will not admit their children to school citing the reason of poverty. Dichotomies of these kinds are prevalent in the society and there is a need to redefine development specifically,” the DC said.

National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (Chennai) Statistics department Head Dr P Venkatesan said that real time data plays a very significant role in the field of science.  Wide application of statistics is found in Mathematics, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Physics and Computer algorithms.   He stated that data in the field of science, especially biology, has changed in the last decade, he said that scientific researches are evidence based and falsification is a characteristic. New techniques are needed to interpret the data in terms of statistics and hence, more research has to be conducted in the field of statistics.

College Principal Sr Marie Prem D’Souza AC presided over the function. Seminar Co-ordinator Shubharekha was present and a good number of students participated.