northern hemisphere, this year ’ s summer has been the hottest on record and the year 2023 is on its way to becoming the hottest ever 7. climatic disasters are occurring more frequently and across the globe. the world recorded its warmest september on record in 2023. in the european alps, glacier melt records were broken in 2022. switzerland an interglacial is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. the current holocene interglacial period began at the end of the pleistocene, about 11, 700 years ago. https : / / public. wmo. int / en / media / news / september - smashes - monthly - temperaturerecord - record - margin https : / / public. wmo. int / en / media / press - release / lost about 6 per cent of its glacier ice volume. for the first time in history, there was no accumulation of fresh ice even at the very highest measurement sites according to the wmo. sea levels increased by about 5 millimetres during january 2021 – august 2022 due to increasing ice melt. during 2022, 58 per cent of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heat wave. there was a drop in the antarctic sea ice extent to 1. 92 million km2, which was the lowest level on record and was almost 1 million km2 below the long - term average. this has been associated with increasing global surface temperatures, droughts, storms, dangerous floods and heat waves of increased intensity and frequency around the world. india faced its hottest february in 2023 since record - keeping began in 1901 8. in march, large parts of the country experienced hailstorms and torrents of unseasonal rain, leading to extensive damage to standing crops. according to india ’ s centre for science and environment ( cse ), the country experienced extreme weather events on 314 of 365 days of 2022, which claimed 3, 026 lives, affected 1. 96 million hectares of crop area and 4, 23, 249 houses, and killed over 69, 899 animals 9. in 2023, april witnessed a record - breaking heat wave in india and other parts of asia. may was the warmest since 1850. june and july were the hottest on record and august was the driest for india since 1901 10. in sharp contrast to the world, india experienced among its wettest septembers in 2023. https : /

the loss of information due to removal of controls. in fact, many analysts hold the view that the financial crisis that hit the asian economies about ten years ago was partly occasioned by inadequate data on the activities of the banking system. in highly deregulated regimes, sometimes, conducting a survey is the only option available for obtaining the data necessary for policy making. however, we do recognise that a survey has to be properly designed to serve the objectives. firstly, quality of data derived from surveys depends on the methodology and standards used for these surveys. an international conference of this type is useful for sharing of country experiences on these issues and, hopefully, you will benefit by learning from varied experiences in making judgments on the complex issues involved. secondly, in a country like india with significant diversity, the matching of survey – design with target population is important. the diversity encompasses several languages, different customs and culture, and variation in levels of literacy and understanding. no doubt, respondents vary across objectives of surveys. thirdly, even a perfectly prepared questionnaire is of no use if large number of people fail to complete it. thus, the main goal of any survey implementation plan should be to obtain a high response rate. as far as our experience with survey responses is concerned, we do not encounter problems with the regulated entities like banks from whom the response is generally more than 90 per cent in most of the surveys conducted whereas the response rate drops significantly when the survey is conducted amongst non - regulated entities. however, the response of households to the inflation expectations survey is almost 100 per cent. even after increasing the sample size considerably, we continue to get good response, though it is difficult to ascertain the reliability of responses from different categories of households, in view of the varying degrees of awareness. in any case, the erroneous responses in this sector are likely to be higher than in the case of banks and other financial institutions, where the percentage of erroneous responses is normally remaining in single digit. fourthly, survey data are subject to well - known types of bias. for example, since respondents know that they are being studied, and have at least some idea why, they may change their answers, either consciously or unconsciously, to show themselves in a better light or to conform to the expectations of those who are studying them. this is fairly common in inflation expectation survey. fifthly, from the perspective of policy - making, the primary purpose of conducting a survey is to produce data that will help