The 13th Meeting of Heads of National Statistical Offices of BRICS Countries was held virtually on October 28, 2021, under the Chairship of India.

Highlights

• Meeting was chaired by Dr. G. P. Samanta, who happens to be the Chief Statistician of India & Secretary of Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
• Representatives from National Statistical Offices (NSOs) of the BRICS Countries attended the meeting.
• In the meeting, JSP (Joint Statistical Publication) 2021 and JSP Snapshot 2021 for BRICS Countries were released.
• Speakers from BRICS NSOs spoke on efforts taken so far and future plan with respect to data & methodologies in monitoring the SDGs.
• Heads of NSOs further acknowledged the importance of collaboration & exchange of best practices regularly to bridge the data gaps for supporting policymakers in evidence-based decision making.

The 13^th Meeting of Heads of National Statistical Offices of BRICS countries was held under the theme- “NSOs efforts in monitoring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.

First chapter of JSP 2021 highlights a general information with comparable statistics of the BRICS countries namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. On the other hand, other 14 chapters provides different aspects of the past development as well as current status of the individual nations.