India, Sept. 2 -- As the Union finance ministry is expected to issue the Budget circular shortly, the Registrar General of India (RGI) is learnt to have sought an increased outlay of over Rs.14,500 crore for the Census-2027 exercise, which is set to begin from April next year, people familiar with the development said.

Officials who didn't want to be named said it was earlier estimated that around Rs.12,000 crore would be required for conducting the entire Census exercise --- including the first phase of house-listing and second phase of population enumeration --- but considering the extensive use of technology, expenses on digital security of data, and daily expenses of the mammoth exercise, a little more than Rs.14,500 crore has been s...