New Delhi, June 17 -- The Centre on Monday issued a notification for conducting 16th Census, thereby formally initiating the preparatory work for the largest population counting exercise after a gap of 16 years. "...the Central government hereby declares that a census of the population of India shall be taken during the year 2027. The reference date for the said census shall be 00.00 hours of the 1st day of March, 2027, except for the union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand", said the notification issued by the Office of Registrar General of India or ORGI. "In respect of the UT of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be 00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026," it added. An officer said that for the upcoming Census exercise, two separate mobile applications and a web portal have been developed for data collection along with its monitoring on real or near-real time basis. "The mobile apps have been developed in English and 15 regional languages as per requirement of different states," he said.P4...