The census will document your digital life too

MUMBAI, INDIA: As the Government of India takes on the biggest mission of population census for the year 2010-11 that begins from tomorrow, it will be for the first time about 1.2 billion Indians across states and union territories will be quizzed on digital devices usage and also will experience fingerprints scan.

Under the census 2010-11, the government plans to set up the National Population Register, which will be an identity database for the vast Indian populations, where a digital finger print scan of all 10 fingers of the residents above 15 years will be taken along with their photographs.

Further, as part of the counting exercise, government officials will ask the residents about their access to digital devices such as the usage of mobile phones, owning of computers and laptops along with Internet connections in their homes.

Also the survey will collect informations about age, residential address, occupation, education, language and religion.

All the biometric details gathered during the census will be highly significant and useful for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and its unique identification project led by Nandan Nilekani.

Moreover, the union government has created an official interactive website -www.censusindia.gov.in, which provides all the details and information about Indian states, territories, districts and town with maps and locations to help the officials, while conducting population survey.

Also, the website has a built-in intranet site for the survey staffs and volunteers that allows them access the central data base for storing collected information.

About 2.5 million government officials and volunteers are expected to be involved in the mammoth counting exercise that will be done in two phases starting from April to September this year and then during the month of February, 2011.