New Delhi, Oct. 13 -- The central government will launch India's first nationwide household income survey in February 2026, marking a major step toward filling a persistent data gap in measuring income distribution and inequality, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MosPI) said in a statement on Monday.

The National Household Income Survey (NHIS), to be conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the MoSPI, will capture detailed information on household earnings, expenditure patterns, and sources of income across rural and urban India.

Unlike the periodic consumption and employment surveys, the new income survey aims to generate direct, comparable estimates of income levels.

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