New Delhi: Census 2021 would be conducted entirely digitally, through a mobile app instead of the conventional pen and paper. Announcing this on Monday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said India could have a “single multi-purpose identity card” which will be used as an identity card, voter card, passport and PAN.
He said that the next census would be done through a mobile app, and its reference date would be March 1, 2021 while for the snow-bound states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and J&K it would be October 1. The exercise in 16 languages would cost Rs 12,000 crore.
Laying the foundation stone of a new building, Shah also pitched for a single multipurpose identity card for all public utilities. “There should be a system that all data should be put together in a single card. That is why digital census is important,” he said. However, experts are not convinced as it would be difficult to club passport with other cards.
