BRICS member countries on Tuesday adopted a joint statement at the conclusion of the two-day meeting of heads of national statistical offices (NSOs) in Lucknow, reaffirming their commitment to strengthen cooperation on data, innovation and modern statistical systems. The outcomes are set to feed into the broader BRICS sherpas and leaders’ track. For representation only (ANI) The meeting, held under India’s Chairship, was organised around the theme “Quality Statistics as a Driver of Change,” aligned with the BRICS theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” More than 350 participants, including heads of national statistical offices, policymakers, academics, think-tanks, civil society representatives and technical experts, attended the event. Digital surveys, AI take centre stage The second day featured a technical session on “Identifying Common Innovation Areas for Potential BRICS Collaboration,” focusing on modern survey methods and digital data collection. India showcased its transition from paper-based surveys to digital systems through e-SIGMA (e-Survey Information Gathering and Management Application), a cloud-based, CAPI-enabled platform now used for large-scale sample surveys. Egypt presented its use of geospatial technology in …