The world's second largest national headcount operation, the census of India, is significant for several reasons. The largest peace-time administrative activity of the Indian state is also the third since economic liberalisation was initiated. Three decades is enough time for a nation to assess the economic impact and implications of a change in macroeconomic policies, and hence census 2011 should provide statistical insights into what the move away from state-led...

In a reformist move long recommended by various economists and panels, the government has set up a task force to create a way to directly transfer cash to the ultimate beneficiaries of various subsidy schemes, which are, at best, messy and, at worst, ineffective. The task force will be headed by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. A pilot will be rolled out in the next four...

The tribals have expressed their gratitude to the state government for registering Sarna religion in the census format. The move came following the directive from state census director Nitin Madan Kulkarni to the state officials asking them to allow the tribals mention Sarna as their religion in the religion code of the census format. "We are happy at the gesture shown by the state government in letting the tribals mention...

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found that the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the State neither conducted any survey for identification of beneficiaries nor followed the survey conducted by the Panchayat and Rural Development Department in 1998-99, to select the beneficiaries of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) for the Public Distribution System (PDS). The status as of September 2007, as per the BPL census of 2002,...

The second phase of census 2011 began today with enumerators seeking information about the first citizen of the country, President Pratibha Patil. The decadal exercise, which will cover the entire country, began by collecting information on a "number of characteristics about the President's personal household" by enumerator Rita, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said. The exercise took place in the presence of Home Minister P Chidambaram, Minister of state for Home Affairs Gurudas...