Pilot phase of digital census: NADRA deploys ‘IT turnkey solution’

ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has deployed its “IT turnkey solution” in the pilot phase of the digital census after successful testing of the digital census solution and the first phase will be completed by August 3.

The pilot phase was launched from July 20 in 429 census blocks of 83 tehsils across all the provinces including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). The authority has provided 500 handheld android tablets being used in the pilot phase of the digital census, a NADRA official said.

The pilot phase is scheduled to complete the house-listings and enumeration by August 3.

Digital Census will be rolled out in all 628 tehsils and approximately 200,000 census blocks of the country.

He said that the Second Census Monitoring Committee on the progress of pilot phase in Digital Census, presided over by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.

Chairman NADRA Tariq Malik, addressing the meeting, said, “Developing digital solution for digital census’ using modern Agile Methodology in just three weeks-time was indeed an uphill task.

He informed about the progress of the pilot phase of the digital census being carried out that during the ongoing pilot phase of the digital census so far 59,569 structures, 58, 882 households have been listed and 74,536 populations have been enumerated.

He informed the meeting that the comprehensive digital solution included the development and deployment of android-based house listings and enumeration application synchronized with the global positioning system (GPS) and geographical information system (GIS), data center services, call center services, establishment of technical support centers at each tehsil level along with online web portal for the general public with other allied services. The system will ensure accuracy, accountability and transparency throughout the process.

The android-based census digital applications have online and offline support with seamless data synchronization feature. The system will continue to support the PBS in all three stages of census, i.e., pre-census stage, census stage, and post-census stage, he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022