THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the new building of the State Academy on Statistical Administration (SASA) at Kaimanam on Tuesday at 12.15 pm. SASA is the study, research and training centre of the Department of Economic Statistics. This centre is responsible for providing statistics for the project implementation of the state government. General Education Minister V Sivankutty will preside over the function. Rao Inderjit Singh, Union Minister for Statistics Programme Implementation, will deliver the keynote address. Shashi Tharoor, MP, Mayor Arya Rajendran and Corporation Councillor Soumya L will offer felicitations. Eminent personalities and dignitaries including senior officials will attend the function.
Apart from being a centre of excellence in official statistics, the aim of SASA is to provide theoretical research by incorporating fast-growing information technology into the fields of Economics and Statistics and thereby create a systematic and scientific statistical network that will provide technical assistance and guidance to the research and developmental activities of various departments and institutions in the state.
The then Governor of Kerala in his policy address speech in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on June 24, 2016, emphasised the importance of statistical academy and had pinned hope that the academy will coordinate its activities on par with the standards set by the National and International Institutes of similar nature.
The SASA aims to promote the development and dissemination of statistical knowledge and to contribute to the development of statistical systems in Kerala. It will provide various training courses from the basics to the advanced statistical knowledge, theories and skills for the personnel of state and local self-governments in the state.The SASA is expected to function as the centre of excellence for training and research in official statistics. An amount of Rs. 4.41 crore has been utilised for the construction of SASA including a central share of Rs. 3.2356 crore and state share of Rs. 1.18 crore.