Source: The Hindu
Manifest pedagogy: Economic Census is a tool to deepen our understanding of the economic scenario and make policies and programmes more meaningl=ful and effective. It also helps us model future decisions better.
In news: The 7th Economic Census is being conducted nationwide through common services centres (CSCs).
Placing it in syllabus: Economic census
Static dimensions:
- What is an economic census?
- Summary of last census
Current dimensions: Latest economic census
Content:
What is the economic census?
- Indian economic census is the census of the Indian economy through counting all entrepreneurial units in the country which were involved in any economic activities of either agricultural or non-agricultural sector, which engaged in production and/or distribution of goods and/or services.
- It provides detailed information on operational and other characteristics such as number of establishments, number of persons employed, source of finance, type of ownership etc.
- This information is used for micro level/ decentralized planning and to assess contribution of various sectors of the economy in the GDP.
- In 1977, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) conducted the First economic census in collaboration with the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DES) in the States/Union Territories.
- It is conducted once in 5 years.
- However, the economic censuses of 1980 and 1990 were integrated with the house-listing operations of the population census.
- All other economic censuses were conducted by the DES of the states under the overall guidance of the CSO.
Summary of 6th economic census:
- The Sixth Economic Census (EC) covered all States and Union Territories and was conducted during January, 2013 to April, 2014 in collaboration with State/UT Governments.
- The EC enumerated all establishments engaged in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities excluding crop production, plantation, public administration, defence and compulsory social security.
- Data for handicraft/handloom establishments were collected for the first time.
- Enumeration Blocks (EBs) of Population Census, 2011 were used as the primary geographical units for collection of data.
- Around 58.5 million establishments were found to be in operation out of which 77.6% establishments were engaged in non-agricultural activities.
- Livestock was the major economic activity (86.74%) of the agricultural sector.
- Around 96.4% establishments were under private ownership and the remaining 3.6% establishments reported their ownership as Government or PSU.
- Proprietary establishments were 89.39%.
- Top five states namely Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh together accounted for about 50% of the total number of establishments in the country.
- Around 51.71% were employed in rural areas and 48.29% in urban areas.
- The growth rate of employment since 2005 was of the order of 38.13%.
- Manufacturing sector was the largest employer providing employment to 30.3 million (23.1%) persons.
- Total number of establishments owned by women entrepreneurs was 8.05 million (13.76%), out of which about 34.3% belonged to agricultural activities.
- Among the states, the largest share in the number of establishments under women entrepreneurship was held by Tamil Nadu followed by Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
- Total number of Handicraft/Handloom establishments was 1.87 million which provided employment to 4.2 million persons.
- Among the States, West Bengal had the largest share in total number of Handicraft/Handloom establishments followed by Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.
Latest (7th) economic census:
- The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has tied up with CSC e-Governance Service for the 7th Economic Census.
- For the first time, the entire Census is being conducted on a digital platform by the use of an application which will ensure high accuracy and data security.
- The application will ensure that there is no data breach and as soon as any data is fed in the application, it is stored in the cloud and no one can access it without permission.
- The work is pending in just three states – West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
- Over 1.5 lakh trained enumerators have been deployed for the nationwide survey who will visit 35 crore establishments and households to carry out the Census.
- The fieldwork for the Census started in June 2019.
CSC e-Governance Services India Limited
- CSC E-governance Services India Limited is a Non-govt company, incorporated on 16 Jul, 2009.
- It is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which has been set up by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) under the Companies Act, 1956 to oversee the implementation of the Common Service Centers (CSC) scheme.
- CSC SPV provides a centralized collaborative framework for delivery of services to citizens through CSCs.
