Home Ministry seeks Rs 14,619 crore budget for Census 2027: Report
New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has sought a budget of Rs 14,618.95 crore to conduct Census 2027, which will mark India’s first Digital Census and collect data on caste, according to a report by The Indian Express on Monday.
The note was submitted by the Registrar General of India (RGI), which functions under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), seeking approval from the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) under the Ministry of Finance. Once cleared by the EFC, the Home Ministry will will move a proposal for the approval of the Union Cabinet.
The proposed budget will cover both phases of Census: the houselisting operation, scheduled from April to September 2026, and the population enumeration, set to begin in February 2027 across the country. In Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, however, enumeration will take place earlier, in September 2026. During the houselisting phase, details on housing conditions, household amenities, and assets will be collected.
Sources quoted by the newspaper said that Census 2027 will be entirely digital, with enumerators using a dedicated mobile application, and citizens given the option for self-enumeration. The exercise will also electronically capture caste data, following an April 30 decision by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) to include it.
To monitor the massive exercise, the RGI is reportedly developing a website named the Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS) for real-time tracking.
Over 35 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed to conduct the Census, which is a 30% increase from the 27 lakh used in the 2011 Census.
This decennial exercise, originally scheduled for 2021, was delayed by six years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The last Census, conducted in 2011, recorded India’s population at 1.21 billion. With a projected population of 143.6 crore in 2027, the cost of Census will be approximately Rs 101.8 per person, added the report.
The 2027 Census will be India’s 16th national Census and the eighth since Independence, gathering data on parameters including demography, religion, language, education, economic activity, migration, fertility, housing, amenities and assets.
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MediaOne TV Facebook page restored after block linked to ‘government request’
Kochi: The official Facebook page of Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV has been restored after being blocked without prior notice, the broadcaster said on Wednesday.
The channel was quoted by Maktoob as saying that the restriction was lifted automatically, with Meta Platforms informing it that the action had been taken following a “government request” which has now expired or been reversed.
The development came shortly after the channel approached the Kerala High Court challenging the blocking of its page, terming it arbitrary and in violation of legal provisions and judicial precedents. The High Court had issued notice to Meta via email hours before the restriction was withdrawn.
In its petition, the channel said access to its Facebook page had been restricted for users in India without citing any specific content or alleged violation. It contended that while individual posts may be taken down under applicable a rule, blocking an entire page goes beyond the scope of such measures.
The incident followed an earlier action taken against the channel in 2022, when the Ministry of Information and transmitting prohibited it from transmitting. It cited national security concerns regarding the Ministry of Home Affairs' refusal of security clearance.
The Supreme Court of India in April 2023 set aside the ban, observing that national security claims cannot be made without substantive basis and that criticism of government policies does not render a media outlet anti-national.
