Dr Prafulla Chandra Mishra

Dr. Prafulla Chandra Mishra, (ISS) is Additional Director General and Head of National Accounts Division, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation and Secretary of IARNIW. He led the 42^nd Conference of IARNIW at NIBP, Pune. He an Indian Statistical Service (ISS) Officer of 1992 batch, joined the service after 1.5-year University Lectureship. After a short stint in Department of Economic Affairs as ADG, he joined NAD in Dec 2023. He transformed the entire process of compilation and dissemination of GDP and related Macroeconomics Aggregates. He has been instrumental in reducing one-year time lag in releasing GDP by doing away with the third revised estimate from 2021-22 onwards. Among other significant contributions in NAD include drawing a roadmap for reforms of the National Accounts Statistics, steering the process of State GDP and DDP compilation through bilateral workshops. As Statistical Advisor in Department of Commerce, Government of India for more than 7 years, he led the Statistics Division, Data Analytics Unit and Export Monitoring Unit of DGFT and contributed significantly to MIS and data analytics and monitoring dashboards. Among the most significant work, he designed and executed the Target $400 billion exports initiative in Department of Commerce.

Dr Mishra has vast experience in the fields of official statistics, including national accounts statistics, foreign trade statistics, industrial statistics, rural development statistics, planning and policy formulation, and monitoring and evaluation, HRD and Public Administration, spanning across various Ministries/Departments such as Finance, Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Commerce and Industry, Defence, Personnel & Training, Planning Commission (now NITI Ayog). He played a significant role in setting up of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the aegis of Planning Commission in 2009 and creation of the popular “Aadhaar” in its nascent stage. As Director (Rural Development) in erstwhile Planning Commission, he spearheaded the rural development programmes such as National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) etc. He worked in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as Capacity Development Advisor in the post-conflict country Afghanistan for three years, leading the National Institution Building Project in CSO. While working as a Director (Planning and Coordination) in MoSPI, he was instrumental in adoption of the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics by Government of India in June 2016. He contributed significantly to MoSPI’s Vision 2030 document with a 7 years Strategy and 3 years Action Plan, aligned with the United Nations 2030 Development Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Monitoring Framework.

Dr Mishra graduated from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar in 1986 with First Class First in Statistics Honours and First Class First in Masters in Statistics with University Gold Medals for Best Graduate and Best Post Graduate. He holds an M. Phil and Ph degree in Statistics from the University of Delhi. He has also obtained Master’s degree in Human Resource Development (HRD) from the University of Manchester, U.K. and Master’s degree in Public Administration from National University of Singapore. He has 13 research/analytical papers published in national and international journals, besides many presentations, seminars and workshops at national and international level.