4th OECD World Forum opens in New Delhi

A call to measure economic progress as well as objective and subjective well-being, sustainable growth, environment, education, health and safety was given at the 4th Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) World Forum which opened Tuesday in New Delhi, state news agency Press Information Bureau (PIB) said. India’s Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation Srikant Kumar Jena, welcoming the delegates today said, “Due importance should also be given to measuring the sustainability, vulnerability, security, trust in institutions and governance and other non-monetary aspects of quality of life.” India has been in the forefront of measurement of well-being. A number of indicators has been developed on health, education and related aspects, and data on various such sectors is being collected through regular surveys, the minister said. Delegates, policy makers, experts and scholars from 150 countries are attending the conference under the theme ‘Measuring Well-being for Development Policy-Making’. The forum is focusing on measuring progress and well-being of a society, aims to foster a debate on a wide range of development and policy issues. The emerging consensus around the world on the issues impacting the welfare of the society is a call for an economy that combines growth with equity and social justice and, for a political system that takes decisions which benefit all citizens. These developmental and governance concerns pose formidable challenges to statisticians as well as policy makers, the PIB report said.