-The Times of India No survey official has visited the village of Phisami, not far from India's border with Myanmar in Nagaland, or parts of the Andaman and Nicobar islands as the sheer remoteness of these areas made them off limits for enumerators.  This will change in July, when the 69th round of the National Sample Survey Organization's (NSSO) enumeration of socio-economic indicators gets under way as all of India will be...

Nearly a year after the government started the ambitious socio-economic and caste census (SECC), no big state has begun the enumeration exercise that was touted as a one-stop solution to accurately identify the poor for distribution of social benefits. The delay could undermine the government's attempt to plug the leakages in the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and delay the Food Security Bill expected to be implemented in November by at...

Unless data gathering for the Socio Economic and Caste Census is refined, the exercise could cast out the real claimants. Have the census enumerators recently knocked on your door with swanky tablet computers in hand? If they have, it's because they have begun to go door-to-door in most States to complete the final phase of the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC). This mammoth exercise is being coordinated by more than...

-DNA Though known for its computer whizkids world over, the penetration of computers/ laptops in India is only 9.4% or less than one out of 10 households with only 3% having internet facility. The penetration of internet is 8% in urban as compared to less than 1% in rural area. The 2011 housing census figures released on Tuesday by the Registrar General of India threw up some interesting facts bringing out stark...

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh wants to sidestep categories proposed under the food security law to make sure that the welfare impact of the legislation isn’t nullified because a count that’s central to it hasn’t been completed across large parts of the nation. Ramesh wants 25kg of foodgrain given every month to 75% of the rural poor and 50% of the urban poor at subsidized rates. The National Food Security Bill, which...