The National Income Committee (NIC) set up in 1949 by the Government of India under the Chairmanship of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis recognised the need for contribution from a wider group participating in research on national income and allied subjects to address various issues relating to estimation and compilation of national income estimates. The NIC recommended the holding of an annual conference on national income and wealth. The First Indian Conference on Research in National Income was organised by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in early 1957. In 1964, this conference was converted into the Indian Association for Research in National Income and Wealth (IARNIW). Dr. V.K.R.V Rao was the first President of IARNIW. He is credited with the building of IARNIW as an independent research body under the aegis of the Central Statistical Organization.

IARNIW is a registered non-profit institution. The activities of IARNIW are generally financed from grants made available by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Planning Commission and the Reserve Bank of India.

>>Contribution of IARNIW Seminars and Conferences in the Development of the Indian System of National Accounts

The IARNIW seminars and conferences have served as effective platform for discussing the conceptualisation and changes in the Indian System of National Accounts over the years. Thus the improvements in the system of national accounts, revisions of base years of constant price series, introduction of various macro-economic aggregates, savings, capital formation, consumption expenditure, public sector accounts, input-output tables, capital stock, disaggregated statements and developments of state income accounts were themes for critical discussions in the IARNIW.

The introduction of the International System of National Accounts in 1968 and 1993 were discussed by the IARNIW conferences and the views of IARNIW were conveyed to the United Nations for necessary changes in these systems.

The presence of a large number of Official Statisticians from the Ministry of Statistics, Reserve Bank of India etc, directly involved in the compilation of the National Accounts Statistics, in the Association provides a unique platform for bringing together research workers, academics from research institutions and universities.