Dogmatism in development course should be avoided: President

Quoting Prof. P.C.Mahalanobis, the doyen of Indian Statistics, he said dogmatism and rigidity of mind are deterrent to all kind of progress and development.

He was addressing the inauguration of the year-long celebration of the 125th birth anniversary of Prof. Mahalanobis at the Indian Statistical Institute founded by the great visionary, who was also, in his words, one of the architects of planned economy in the country.

Referring to the role of public sector, which was put to question many times, he said, the public sector enterprises, during the last ten years, contributed Rs.17.87 lakh crores as taxes are accruals, which is 1.5 times of the gross investment made on them.

The President, in this context, revealed that 138 out of about 300 PSE’s are operating in the country these days and most of them are making profit.

He stated, a tool of development may be useful or degrading and it all depends on how it is used, as a dogmatic approach or with a pragmatic view.

The birthday of Prof. Mahalanobis is observed as the National Statistics Day throughout the country. Paying homage to the great visionary, Mukherjee said a big banyan tree, attracted all the mighty minds and thus an institution of great pride was born.

D.V. Sadanand Gowda, the MoS for Statistics and Programme Implementation, in his address, said, this year a special emphasis is being given on administrative statistics.