The Centre has appointed a Director of Census Operations (DCO) and a Director of Citizen Registration (DCR) for Odisha, as well as for Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry, according to a government order issued on Thursday, July 17.
Odisha cadre IAS officer of 2012-batch Nikhil Pavan Kalyan has been appointed as DCO and DCR for the coastal state, the government order said.
His batch mate M Sundaresh Babu, a 2012-batch IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre, has been appointed for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the same position.
Deep Shikha Sharma, a 2011-batch Indian Forest Service officer from the AGMUT cadre will be DCO/DCR for Himachal Pradesh, it said.
While Kalyan has been appointed with effect from June 16, Babu and Sharma have been appointed with effect from June 23, the order published in the gazette on Thursday said.
All three officers have been posted till December 31, 2025 or till further orders, it said.
The DCOs appointed for the Census in each state will conduct the exercise in their jurisdiction under the guidelines and supervision of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
India’s next census set for 2026-2027, including caste enumeration
The 2027 Census will be the 16th decennial Census of India since 1872. The first systematic Census was conducted throughout the country according to a uniform pattern.
This will be the eighth Census since India’s independence, picking up after the 2021 exercise was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Census is a two-phase exercise. House-listing operation, housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected beginning April 1, 2026 in phase one.
Subsequently, population enumeration, demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected in the second phase, which is scheduled to start from February 1, 2027, according to a letter issued by Registrar General of India issued in June.
Caste enumeration will also be done in the Census, a government statement had said.
Over 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh Census functionaries would be deployed for Census work.
