On December 13, 2019 7th edition of the Economic Census was launched in New Delhi. To carry out the economic census, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) tied up with Common Service Centres Network (CSCN or CSC). CSC is an SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) under Ministry of Electronics and IT(MeitY). It is for the first time the census is being conducted on digital platform named ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Digital platform has reduced time of survey to 6 months from 2 years earlier.
Digital Census in Delhi:
- Delhi is the 26th state where the survey has been launched. The survey process is already on in 20 states and 5 UTs (Union Territories).
- ICT: The digital platform ICT which is used for the first time will provide high accuracy and data security. The ICT is being used for data capture, validation, report generation and dissemination. It will also help in faster analysis of the data.
- Time duration: The entire census process in which survey of around 45lakh establishments and households will be done, would be completed in around 3 months.
- Over 1.5 lakh trained enumerators have been deployed for the Pan-India survey. The fieldwork of the census started in June 2019.
- CSC head: The head of operations of CSC is Mr Nepal Chandra Sen.
- CSO director General: Mr A.K Sadhu is the Director General (DG- Social Statistics) of Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Economic Census:
- National Economic Survey, is conducted every five years. It is very crucial for framing of policies and planning for the government and other organizations. Thus for the first time digital technology has been implemented.
- First Census: the 1st census was conducted in the year 1978.
- Census coverage: The census will cover geographical spread/clusters of economic activities, ownership pattern; persons engaged etc. of the establishments engaged in economic activity.
About Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI)
Founded- 15 October 1999.
Headquarters- New Delhi.
Minister of State (MoS- Independent Charge)- Rao Inderjit Singh.
Secretary- Pravin Srivastava.
