India to begin long-delayed population census soon , delayed by three years, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah announced today, quoted by Reuters and BTA
The once-a-decade national census was supposed to be held in 2021, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as technical and organizational reasons, the agency said.
Last month Reuters reported that India is likely to start the census in September.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is aiming to fill in significant gaps in the country's population data in its third term after years of criticism over the issue. The new census will take India about 18 months.