3. (1) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, direct that statistics shall be collected relating to any of the following matters, namely:- (a) any matter relating to factories, (b) any of the following matters so far as they relate to welfare of labour and conditions of labour, namely:- (i) prices of commodities, (ii) attendance, (iii) living conditions, including housing, water supply and sanitation, (iv) indebtedness, (v) rents of dwelling houses, (vi) wages and other earnings, (vii) provident and other funds provided for labour, (viii) benefits and amenities provided for labour, (ix) hours of work, (x) employment and unemployment, (xi) industrial and labour disputes, and thereupon the provisions of this Act shall apply to the collection of those statistics. (2) In clause (a) of sub section (1), “factory” means a factory as defined in ¹[clause (f) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1965], or any premises deemed to be a factory in pursuance of a declaration made ²[under sub section (1) of section 3] of that Act.