Budget 2021: Govt gives 3,768 crores towards first digital census

“The forthcoming census would be the first digital census in the history of India. For this monumental task, I have allocated ₹3,768 crore in the year 2021-22,” Sitharaman said during her budget presentation.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the presentation of this year’s Union Budget allocated ₹3,768 crore towards the upcoming census, which will be digitised for the first time ever. “The forthcoming census would be the first digital census in the history of India. For this monumental task, I have allocated ₹3,768 crore in the year 2021-22,” Sitharaman said during her budget presentation which was also digitised as she made the announcements through her tablet and electronic copies were provided to all members of Parliament (MPs).

India conducts its census every 10 years with the last one being done in 2011 where the total population came up to more than 1.21 billion. (HT file photo. Representative image)

This announcement of Sitharaman came after Union home minister Amit Shah had said in 2019 that the 2021 census would be carried out digitally. “A mobile app will be used in Census 2021. It will be a transformation from paper census to a digital census,” Shah had said adding that ₹12,000 was to be spent by the Centre for this transformation.

A census is defined as the official survey of a country’s population. India conducts its census every 10 years with the last one being done in 2011 where the total population came up to more than 1.21 billion. The 2021 Census will comprise a total of 60 questions which would range from the amenities available in households, sources of power and drinking water along with the occupation, languages spoken and the religion of a particular family.

This time, the six pillars on which the Union budget was based on were health and well-being, infrastructure, minimum government, maximum governance, health and wellbeing, inclusive development and research and development.

Among the major announcements made, Sitharaman said that ₹283,846 crore was allocated towards the health sector out of which ₹35,000 crore was provided towards the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines. With regard to the agricultural sector, she said that the agriculture credit had been increased to ₹16.5 lakh crore and the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime had undergone a change to assure a price that is at least 1.5 times the cost of production across all commodities.

Sitharaman also announced that a record ₹110,055 crore was given towards the Indian Railways and a 'National Rail Plan for India 2030' had been developed, which aims towards creating a future-ready railways system by 2030.