Govt declares census, NPR database as critical information infrastructure

The government has declared as critical information

infrastructure certain databases related to the Census and the National Population Register (NPR).

In a notification, the Union home ministry said the decision has been taken after exercising the powers conferred to it under the Information Technology Act, 2000, (Amended 2008).

The central government declares the computer resources relating to Census Monitoring and Management System, Self Enumeration and Civil Registration System (CRS) web portals, mobile applications for House Listing, Population Enumeration and National Population Register updation being critical information infrastructure (CII) of the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, it said.

Linked databases, including the NPR database, Census database and CRS database, computer resources setup and installed at National Data Centre, Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Delhi, and Disaster Recovery Site and Data Centres at Bengaluru and Lucknow have also declared being CII, according to the notification.

The computer resources of all associated dependencies of the aforementioned entities have also been declared as "protected systems" under the law. The notification came into immediate effect.

The Census 2021 has been kept on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it may start in the near future.