Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics

About Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics:

• It is the premier organization of Government of India for collection, compilation and dissemination of India’s trade statistics and commercial information.
• History
  • The Organization traces its origin to a statistical branch established in the Finance Department of the Government of India way back in 1862.
  • Sir William W. Hunter was the first DG of the DGCI & S or the Director General of Statistics as he was designated, back in 1871. 
• Functions
  • It is entrusted with the work of collecting, compiling and publishing/disseminating trade statistics and various types of commercial information required by the policy makers, researchers, importers, exporters, traders as well as overseas buyers.
  • It is the first large scale data processing organization functioning as a nodal agency for Export & Import data in the country.
  • It also compiles and publishes the inland Trade Statistics covering inter-state movements of goods by rail, river and air on yearly basis.
• It is headed by the Director General, an Additional Secretary level officer of Indian Statistical Services (ISS).
• Nodal Ministry: It works under the Ministry of Commerce.
• Headquarter: Kolkata.

Q1: What are statistics?

It is the science of collecting, analyzing, presenting, and interpreting data. Governmental needs for census data as well as information about a variety of economic activities provided much of the early impetus for the field of statistics. 

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