The Union Cabinet has approved ₹11,718 crore for the first fully digital Census, to be conducted in two phases between 2026 and 2027.
A new “Census-as-a-Service” system will provide ministries with clean, machine-readable, and actionable datasets for policy-making.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday announced that the government has approved ₹11,718 crore for conducting the Census of India 2027.
Briefing reporters after a Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said this will be the first fully digital Census. The exercise will take place in two phases: house-listing and housing census from April to September 2026, followed by population enumeration in February 2027.
For Ladakh and the regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, population enumeration will be carried out in September 2026.
Vaishnaw said the 2027 Census will also record caste data electronically during the enumeration phase. Around 30 lakh field functionaries will undertake the exercise, aided by a mobile app for data collection and a central monitoring portal to ensure improved data quality.
He added that dissemination will be more user-friendly, enabling policymakers to access required information at the click of a button.
Through a “Census-as-a-Service” model, ministries will receive clean, machine-readable and actionable datasets.
(with PTI inputs)
