Government to begin economic census next month

The Centre has decided to conduct economic census between October 2012 and June 2013 in collaboration with all the state governments and administrations of Union Territories (UT). The decision comes after a gap of nearly seven years.

The massive exercise, which is likely to begin from next month, will collect up-to-date information on total number of establishments according to their economic activity classifications and total number of persons employed in them at the village and ward levels of the country.

The Central Statistical Organisation under the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in collaboration with Directorates of Economics and Statistics in the states and UTs will also collect source of finance of the establishments, type of their ownership, religion code and social group of propriety establishments, according to their industrial activities besides their distribution at the all-India level for a comprehensive analysis of the structure of the economy.

“Information on a number of agricultural establishments excluding crop production and plantation, will also be collected,” official sources told Deccan Herald.

The Census, which has been delayed by about two years, has been approved as the Centre plans to spend Rs 763.49 crore by enumerators on the central sector scheme. The government has envisaged setting up of economic census cells in each state, UTs and at the Centre for monitoring field work, data processing and validation, and writing of the reports.

For this, the government has already approved for the creation of 30 posts at the Centre and 235 posts in the states and UTs. The state governments and Union Territory administrations concerned will engage enumerators and supervisors for conducting the field work.

The ministry has taken services of the National Institute of Design (NID) for designing house and establishment listing schedule, establishment abstract and directory of establishment schedule which will be used during the census.

These schedules have been translated into Hindi, English, Assamese, Konkani, Manipuri, Oriya, Tamil, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Telugu and Marathi, sources said.

The data collected will be used for micro level and decentralised plannings. It will also be used in undertaking detailed follow-up sample surveys to assess contribution of various sectors of the economy in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The economic census will provide a frame of establishments engaged in various economic activities both in the organised and unorganised sectors of the economy. The database would enable policy makers and analysts to assess the impact of the economic liberalisation process on entrepreneurial activities, sources added.

The economic census, which is generally conducted once in five years, was last held in 2005. The government has conducted five economic census so far.