Mysore/Mysuru: The Seventh Economic Census, conducted by the Central Government’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), has taken off in full vigour in Mysuru district and city. A team from the Ministry had come to Mysuru yesterday to review the census conducted by the local Common Services Centres. 

The Central team comprised Nepal Chandra Sen, head of operations, Seventh Economic Census, Robert D. Nelson, State head, Karnataka and Anil Reddy, State project manager. They examined the work done so far by the Common Services Centres that is led by supervisor R. Yashodha and D.M. Umashankar.

During the census, enumerators will visit every house and classify them in the category of residential, residential-commercial, commercial, industrial, etc. The Common Services Centre (CSC) in Mysuru has hired 220 supervisors and 890 enumerators who have been trained to collect data on the mobile app.

In the Sixth Economic Census conducted in 2014 in Mysuru district, 1,40,232 professions and businesses were listed and of them, 88,062 were from rural areas and 52,170 from urban areas. This year, the enumerators expect more data as in Mysuru city alone, there are more than 30,000 to 32,000 businessmen. They will be included in the urban section along with the data obtained from Hunsur, Nanjangud and T. Narasipur. 

For the first time, the entire Census is being conducted on a digital platform — under Digital India — by the use of an application which will ensure high accuracy and data security. A mobile app has been released for the same for the first time in Mysuru. 

Officials said that none of the shops will be skipped by the enumerators and all that citizens have to do is verify the identity of the person coming to their home or office for the Census and provide them information about the economic activities being conducted in the house or the establishment. 

The Census is aimed at getting current economic activity, employment and self-employment, kind of employment or businesses being carried out by the individuals and such others which will be analysed to get the exact picture of the economic development in the City, District, State and Country.

Under the survey, enumerators will collect data about profession, industry (small scale, large, medium and home-based) business, real estate land income, agriculture, trade and commerce, buying and selling distribution and all other source of income. Data will be collected from both urban and rural areas and from organised and unorganised sectors. 

The Economic Census is crucial for framing of policies and planning for the Government and other organisations. It will provide disaggregated information on various operational and structural aspects of all establishments in the country. The Census will provide valuable insights into geographical spread and clusters of economic activities, ownership pattern and persons engaged                                            of the establishments.

Apart from collecting economic data, the enumerators are clearing misconception that the Census is linked to CAA, NRC or NPR. The Census is being conducted block-wise and each block will have 66 investigator units and each unit will have nearly 400 households and 2,000 people.