India’s seventh Economic Census began from Tripura on Monday and a similar task would be launched in other States and Union Territories across the country next month, officials said.
“The three-month long fieldwork of seventh Economic Census launched today (Monday) in Tripura. The fieldwork in other States and Union Territories would be undertaken in August and September,” said Economic Census nodal officer Arup Kumar Chanda.
He said the IT-enabled economic census would be done by the Common Service Centres (CSC) in each gram panchayat. The official said that the enumerators and supervisors engaged by the CSCs have been trained to collect data on mobile application developed for data capture, validation, report generation and dissemination.
At least 6,000 enumerators and supervisors from unemployed youths are being engaged to conduct the Economic Census in Tripura.
Data will be kept confidential
An official release said that data would be collected through door-to-door survey of each household and commercial establishment under the provisions of Collection of Statistics Act 2008.
Household and establishment-level data collected would be kept strictly confidential and used only for developmental planning and statistical purposes by the State, Union Territory and Central governments.
The data collected by the enumerators would be verified by supervisors in subsequent visit to the concerned household and establishments. After completion of data collection and processing, the statistical results of the economic census would be released, it said.
The seventh Economic Census is being conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The ministry has partnered with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle under the Ministry of Electronics and Information.
The census would also cover all establishments, including household enterprises, engaged in production or distribution of goods and services.