At 2001 census, large scale hardware up-gradation had been made at 15 Data Centres and in DP Division, New Delhi. This was required for using the latest “Automatic Form Processing Technology using “Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR)” technology. The OMR/OCR/ICR technologies were evaluated and ICR was found to be acceptable being the viable solution for census data processing activities. IT resources were created at 15 data centres by installing 45 NT servers, 1060 PIII PCs, 25 High speed heavy duty duplex scanners (Kodak) and used backup devices like ZIP SLR & DLT drives. About 1200 technical officers and about 500 contractual operators were engaged for electronically data capturing at 15 data centres and processing of census data at DP Division, HQr., ORGI, New Delhi. The paper schedules were transported to the nearest allotted data center (resulted in reduced transportation cost) for scanning and data file creation activities. The scanning activities were carried out on 24x7x30 basis. The technology enabled processing of cent percent data, that is, more than one billion records (228 million paper forms were scanned) for the first time in census history. The scanned images were archived for permanent storage. Image enabled Computer Assisted Coding (CAC) was applied for certain fields. The use of ICR technology after scanning the schedules and use of CAC (eliminated setting up of Regional Tabulation Centres for manual coding) saved the Government lot of expenses incurred in the past on setting up of Regional Tabulation Offices. The services of a System Integrator were utilised at 15 Data Centres for scanning operations and data file creation. The use of technology has helped to enhance the skills of EDP officers of ORGI. The DP Division officers have developed the data processing software in-house.

 The DP Division has assisted various Technical Divisions of ORGI for data processing projects, such as:

        a)  Preparation of District Hand Book (Social Studies Division)  

                   b)  Large size village study data entry and processing (Social Studies Division)  

                   c)  Extraction of data from 2001 census data and tabulation for slum project (Census Division)  

        d)  Scanning and ICR based processing for Verbal Autopsy (Vital Statistics Division)