NEW DELHI: A good share of Census 2027 datasets may be released in the same year, thanks to the capturing of data in digital mode right from the outset, Registrar General of India and census commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan assured ahead of the launch of Census 2027, the world’s largest and India’s first-ever digital population data capture.“Earlier, census data was first collected on paper and then digitised, making compilation a time-consuming process. Collection of data digitally will ensure Census 2027 datasets are out much faster,” he said.Appealing to citizens to participate wholeheartedly in the census, Narayan asked them to furnish accurate information as census data is key for shaping policy and socio-economic interventions.

1st 15 days of 45-day house visit period are for self-enumeration

Registrar general and census commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan also hoped a good percentage of people will opt for self-enumeration, another first in the history of Indian Census, via the dedicated portal that lists tooltips and FAQs to guide users through the process.The houselisting operations (HLO) phase of census — which will collect data on housing conditions and amenities — gets under way on April 1 across eight states and UTs, including Delhi’s NDMC and cantonment area. All states/UTs, too, barring West Bengal, have chosen separate HLO timelines between April and Sept.The first 15 days of the 45-day HLO period are exclusively for self-enumeration, another first in the history of the census. Over the next 30 days, field visits will be undertaken by over 30 lakh enumerators. “We expect Bengal to also notify its HLO schedule soon,” said Narayan.The HLO phase will be followed by population enumeration in Feb next year. March 1, 2027, shall be the reference date for Census 2027, except for a few snow-bound areas. It is during the population enumeration phase that individual data fields like religion, fertility, socio-economic status, migration, and, for the first time after 1931, caste, will be captured. The questions for Phase-2 — which will include caste count — will be notified later, said the RGI.Asked why National Population Register (NPR) updation had been delinked from Census 2027, unlike the original plan for Census 2021, and if this was on account of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exercise, the RGI ruled out any correlation between the two. TOI was the first to report on June 17, 2025, that NPR updation would not be undertaken alongside Census 2027.Narayan assured that individual data recorded during Census 2027 will be kept strictly confidential, as mandated by the Census Act. “It cannot be shared with any govt agency, accessed under RTI or produced before the courts. Only aggregated statistical data will be used for tabulation purposes,” he said.Census 2027 data will be collected through a mobile app, and a web portal will monitor and manage various activities of census and house listing, while block creation will be done through a web mapping application. No documents are to be provided by respondents during the census.

‘Census caste questions yet to be finalised’

Registrar general and census commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, when asked about the likely methodology of capturing caste during the population enumeration phase of the census due in Feb next year, said questions for the relevant phase were yet to be finalised.“There are many suggestions on how to collect caste information. All those will be considered, and the best shall be picked and questions framed and finalised accordingly,” he said. Asked about the risk of respondents declaring a wrong caste to avail the benefit of reservation, Narayan clarified that individual information collected during the census is not meant to be used for any purpose. “Only aggregate statistical information is made public. Individual data cannot be used to derive any benefit from any scheme,” he said.

NEW DELHI: Citing recent incidents of fatal building fires in Delhi, Odisha and Goa, a technical committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has disagreed with the deregulation cell of the Cabinet Secretariat to exclude “fire safety” provisions from the National Building Code. However, it has accepted over a dozen recommendations, including the removal of provisions related to administration and development control norms.The deregulation cell had asked BIS to make different parts of the current NBC, including the Fire Safety part, as handbooks and to take them out of the Code. This is the second instance when the Cabinet Secretariat has asked BIS to change norms. The last one was the withdrawal of the notification related to the revised seismic code.As part of the government’s deregulation drive, the deregulation cell under the Cabinet Secretariat has asked BIS to exclude matters relating to sections such as administration, development control norms and fire safety from NBC and leave these to the state governments and municipal authorities, as they are competent to make these norms.However, the technical committee of BIS, in its last meeting, recommended that the government keep the “Fire and Life Safety” section in NBC, which is being revised. “In deciding so, the committee also observed that from recent incidents in the country and world-wide, it is clear that fire safety is a crucial aspect and that buildings that are not planned/ designed/ maintained to the intended purpose can turn into death traps; so the same should be addressed scrupulously in the Code, as every life is precious,” the minutes of the meeting mentioned.The panel also recommended that this should be part of the “building code rather than a separate handbook”.The committee has accepted several suggestions of the deregulation cell, including the provision of dividing a city into fire zones, removing height restrictions, and relaxing the requirement of sprinkler systems for all low-hazard and small-scale industries. “The committee has agreed to modify the provisions where the suggestions have merit. But any dilution of fire safety norms must be avoided for public safety,’ said a panel member.This is the second such “direct instruction” to BIS from the deregulation cell of the Cabinet Secretariat after it recently asked the standards body to withdraw the notification related to seismic standard “immediately”, people aware of the development said.Some committee members said that when the draft NBC 2025 was ready for publication after over two years of work by experts, the deregulation cell wrote to all states stating that NBC is not mandatory for them to follow. The letter of June 25, 2025, said, “The NBC is not legally binding. It’s a voluntary code for reference. It is not a ‘code’ in a legally binding sense…The subject of land and buildings is listed in List-II (State List) in the Constitution...Hence, buildings and matters like norms for FAR/FSI, setback, ground coverage, parking, green area, fire regulation, etc., as well as other aspects covered in NBC are within the exclusive legislative and executive jurisdiction of states.”Ajit Kumar S M, president of Karnataka Professional Civil Engineers Act — Steering Consortium, said, “Even now, NBC is voluntary in nature. So, the Code can exist, and states can tweak it. Government shouldn’t bulldoze a technical committee of experts which has been set up by a statutory entity.”

SRINAGAR: While the Centre took all by surprise by announcing the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, there was one person in J&K who knew it beforehand, CM Omar Abdullah said in the assembly Monday, apologizing to the party chief whip, Mubarak Gul, for not heeding to his foreboding then.Omar made the statement while speaking on a bill Gul moved to enhance the salary of the chief whip on the lines of other states. While the CM rejected the bill, he praised Gul for political acumen.He said amid widespread uncertainty in J&K, politicians huddled to debate possible situations on August 3, 2019.“At that time, Mubarak Gul stood up and thumped the table, telling us that Article 370 and 35A would be abrogated, and J&K would be bifurcated and turned into an UT,” National Conference chairperson said, recalling he had dismissed Gul’s warning.“I told him if the Centre had to do it, they would do it around Lok Sabha polls to gain a few seats. Why would they do it four-and-a-half years before the election?” Omar said.“The meeting ended and we all went home,” Omar said, adding, “but on August 5, 2019, when our houses were locked and I saw the news on television, I could only think of Mubarak Gul.”The CM said he still does not know how Gul had foreseen the Modi govt’s plan. As Omar was speaking, MLAs looked towards Gul, hoping futilely he would reveal it. Instead, Gul stood up to announce the withdrawal of his bill.

TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to annihilate Iran as a nation, threatening its drinking water infrastructure, energy grid, and its oil wells unless it capitulated in ongoing talks – which Teheran denies are taking place.In a series of confounding posts and statements that appeared to be aimed at turning the heat on a defiant Iran, Trump, taunted by critics who say he has led the US into another needless war, said Washington is in “serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran,” without identifying the interlocutors.