Kohima, Feb 21: The first State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) meeting on the 8th Economic Census 2025-26 was held at the Civil Secretariat in Kohima under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Dr. J Alam, IAS.

Secretary of Economic & Statistics, Akunu S Meyase , highlighted that the Economic Census is a nationwide exercise to enumerate all establishments and workers, with a special focus on the non-agricultural sector. He informed that seven Economic Censuses have been conducted so far by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in collaboration with States and Union Territories.

The 8th Economic Census will utilize an advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform for geo-coded data collection via mobile devices, real-time data validation, and an interactive Management Information System (MIS) for monitoring and supervision.

Discussions in the meeting covered key preparations, including the recruitment of contractual manpower and IT personnel, selection of master trainers, and activation of District Level Coordination Committees (DLCCs). It was decided that government employees from various departments would be deployed as enumerators and supervisors for the census.

Chief Secretary Dr. Alam directed department heads to ensure full cooperation from district-level officials and asked Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to conduct necessary meetings before the census rollout. He also stressed the importance of using social media to raise public awareness about the initiative.

The Economic & Statistics Department informed that the 8th Economic Census is tentatively scheduled to begin in the first week of April across the country. The meeting concluded with a PowerPoint presentation on the census framework.