Question

What is the population of India according to the 2011 census?
A.1.01 billion
B.1.21 billion
C.1.11 billion
D.1.31 billion

Answer 1

Hint: India is the second largest nation in the population charts. Hence, census is taken every 10 years and it started in 1881. All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act. The last census was taken in 2011 and the next census will be taken in 2021. The census in India is conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

Complete answer:
 Census is the process of systematic count and collection of data regarding a people of a given population. It also collects additional information regarding people with consent. Origin of the word ‘census ‘is in Rome as the term was used to count people who are eligible to become soldiers. Censuses started as a method for gathering systematic national demographic data to validate each resident in the nation. Newer censuses include additional information regarding these individuals including their age, gender and educational status with respect to different regions.
India is the second largest nation in the population charts with a population of 135.26 crore as of 2014. Census data is taken every 10 years since 1881. All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act. The last census was taken in 2011 and the next census will be taken in 2021. The census in India is conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The 2011 census was the 15th census in India. It was conducted in two phases for two different information, house listing [started in April 2010] and population enumeration [February 2011]. According to the 2011 census, the population was estimated to be 1.21 billion.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B).

Note: February 2021 is being rescheduled for February 2022 to ensure the safety of people and to have a standard compatibility with earlier censuses. This will also affect the National Sample Surveys and others that use the census as the sampling frame. The census is also set to bring a separate and well-organized list of people under OBC list, notified by each state.