New Delhi, Jan. 8 -- The Union government on Wednesday issued a formal notification for the first phase of Census 2027, stating that the exercise will be conducted from April 1 to September 30 this year across all states and Union territories during a 30-day period specified by the states/UTs and self-enumeration facility will be available 15 days before the start of the first phase. "...the Central government hereby declares that the houselisting operations of the Census of India 2027 shall take place between April 1, 2026 and September 30, September, 2026 in all states and Union territories in India during the period of thirty days specified by each state and UT," stated a gazetted notification issued by the registrar general of India (RGI) Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan. "There shall also be an option for self-enumeration which shall be conducted in fifteen days' time period just before the start of house-to-house houselisting operations of thirty days," the notification added. The 16th census, which will include caste enumeration, was announced by the government last year. It will be conducted in two phases and is expected to be completed by March 1, 2027. In phase one, HLO (houselisting operation), the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected from April 1. Subsequently, in the second phase i.e. PE (population enumeration), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected from February 1, 2027. As exclusively reported by HT last month, RGI had asked all states/UTs to appoint the Census functionaries including principal census officers, district census officers, special charge census officers, etc by January 15 and register them on the portal developed by it....