The two-day meeting of Heads of National Statistical Offices (NSO) of BRICS Member Countries was inaugurated today under the Chairship of India, at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The event brought together more than 350 participants including representatives from National Statistical Offices of BRICS, policy makers, academia, think-tanks, civil society organisation and technical experts. Guided under the overarching theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability (BRICS), the BRICS Statistics track, India has adopted the theme “Quality Statistics as Driver of Change”, reflecting an unwavering commitment to data quality, innovation, effective dissemination, and people-centric statistical systems that are responsive to rapid technological advancements, the growing demand for high-frequency and granular data, and the increasing reliance on official statistics to support evidence-based, sustainable, and inclusive development.
The inaugural session of the Meeting of Heads of National Statistical Offices was initiated with an introduction by DG (Data Governance), MoSPI followed by an address by Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary, Planning and Programme Implementation, Uttar Pradesh. During the inaugural session, Heads of NSOs and representatives of BRICS member countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also shared brief introductions and their expectations from the meeting. A draft BRICS Joint Statistical Publication (JSP), 2026 and Snapshot BRICS JSP 2026 were released during the meeting.
Two BRICS Technical Sessions titled “From Digital Platforms to Execution-Level Experience: National Practices and Strategic Approaches for Data Dissemination,” and “Transformational Reforms in Statistical System” featured presentations by participating countries. Besides the Technical sessions, a side-event on the theme, ‘Unlocking the potential of Administrative Data’ was also held in collaboration with knowledge partner CivicDataLab, which was attended by representatives from BRICS member countries, civil society organizations, academia and officers from Central and State Governments.
