Overview

• Minister of State Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha that no decision has been made to update the National Population Register as part of Census 2027.
• The census will unfold in two fully digital phases, beginning with a house listing and housing census and followed by population enumeration including caste data.
• Reference dates are fixed for October 1, 2026 in Ladakh, snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and March 1, 2027 nationwide.
• Preparatory steps feature a July 3–4 conference of Directors of Census Operations to finalise administrative frames, mobile-app data collection, CMMS monitoring, self-enumeration portals and training.
• The estimated financial outlay for the exercise is under finalisation, with detailed funding plans to be announced before enumeration begins.