ABSTRACT
An accurate, comprehensive, timely, and high-quality census is a prerequisite for achieving Sustainable Development Goals, and technology plays a substantial role in census. India is now the world's most populous country. The forthcoming Census of India, for enumerating roughly 1.4 billion people costing Rs.12,695 crores (US$ 1.7 billion) and deploying three million enumerators, is adopting transformational technologies. Considering India's rank of 100 in the UN E-Governance Development Index 2020, a digital census is challenging. Providing practitioners’ perspective, this study finds that India is taking a quantum leap in its 150 years’ history of census through ‘Digital Census’ for the first time. The forthcoming digital census includes digital data collection through Mobile Apps in 16 languages, digital self-enumeration, digital mapping through Houselisting Block Mapping and Digital Ward Mapping, digital management and monitoring of field operations, digital payments, and digital data dissemination through ‘Census-as-a-Service (CaaS)’. This study finds that advanced technologies are going to be applied in census operations in the forthcoming census in India. The digital census is likely to make the Indian census faster, more efficient, and accurate. The application of all these advanced and disruptive technologies in the forthcoming Indian census is likely to digitally transform the census operations in India and will enhance the welfare of humans and boost public good.
