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The Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri Oscar Fernandes, launched here today, the most advanced and highly accurate “Intelligence Character Recognition” technology, for processing especially the ocean of data being generated by the 5th Economic Census, currently in an advanced stage of progress. This census is unique in many ways and will be gathering data from forty million establishments. The main purpose is to generate an updated frame of enterprises for sectoral development analysis and detailed follow-up surveys. The data generated will be highly useful in the development of the economy especially the unorganized sector. The Minister revealed that Computerized Data Collection System will be gradually introduced and a beginning has been made in two blocks in Karnataka where the Simputer is being used for gathering information. This is expected to yield good results so as to develop hybrid data collection system, to make the process fatigue-free for the investigators.
Also inaugurating a workshop on the ICR technology for processing the Economic Census Data, Shri Oscar Fernandes pointed out that this census is much more complicated than the population census, as there is no statistical act to back-up the collection of data. Moreover, about 95 per cent of employment is in the unorganised sector and it is the economic census alone which can provide the basic characteristics of these units for societal development. Simultaneously, the Ministry has taken the initiative of preparing a Directory of Enterprises having 10 or more workers and when ready it will form the basis for the preparation of the Business Register.
The Minister pointed out that Data Collection is not the end of the exercise, unless it is processed, validated and compiled properly for planning and policy initiatives. The future enterprise surveys of the National Sample Survey Organisation will depend on the quality of the output of the 5th Economic Census, since it is going to provide the basic framework for follow-up studies either by NSSO or any other organisation. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has gone in for a partnership agreement with the Registrar General of India for population census, which has both the hardware and software of the ICR technology. It successfully used the ICR during the 2001 population census.
The Intelligence Character Recognition Technology provides one hundred per cent reliable and accurate data transcription and generation of database. India being a pioneer in the development of software globally, it is befitting that we adopt the advanced technology for statistical data processing. The ICR technology is very cost effective and the Minister urged the statistical community to look into the pros and cons of the adaptability of the technology in other areas, where large-scale data processing is involved.
The Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Shri P.S.Rana told the workshop that information empowerment of the citizens is not only essential for national growth but also to be in the forefront of the global arena, in the area. A road map has been drawn in all the functional areas of the Ministry to make it a pioneer, in the application of information technology. The drudgery of entering data has to be reduced, Shri Rana said. The workshop besides discussing the application of the ICR will also review the progress made in the 5th Economic Census currently under way. This census is, however, not covering the enterprises relating to crop production.
The process also known as “Automated Forms Processing”, enables the users to process the documents from their images or directly from paper and convert them to computer readable data. The Automated Forms are designed to be scanned to a digital format so that the data on the Form can be extracted by software rather than keyed by data-entry personnel. While, Forms processing packages will give recognition capabilities, they also manage the complete life cycle of the document from scanning to extracting and even include Image Archival and Retrieval.
Compared to conventional keyed data entry, the Automated Forms Processing is more accurate, less expensive, easier to validate, produces an exact compact digital image of the original Form, generates a complete audit trail of the process, opens up a range of new ways to evaluate comment information in a simple and efficient manner, supports a range of new options for filling out Forms, including paper Forms, faxed Forms, web-Forms and e-mail Forms.
Another major advantage of the ICR technology is that it can be easily integrated with other computer applications and provides a far easier way to verify that the data from the Form, is accurately keyed or extracted, as well as allows permanent storage of a copy of the original Form without storing paper and most importantly satisfies many new regulatory requirements, relating to certain specific types of surveys.
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