India to count its population in 2027, after six-year delay

People throng a marketplace in Mumbai, India, April 24, 2023. (AP/File Photo)
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Updated 16 June 2025
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India to count its population in 2027, after six-year delay

  • Caste information to be included in the census for the first time since 1931
  • Experts expect caste details to lead to a reform of affirmative action policies

NEW DELHI: After a six-year delay, India is set to count its population in the 2027 census, the government said on Monday, as it prepares to also record caste data for the first time in nearly a century.

One of the world’s largest administrative undertakings, India’s population census was originally scheduled for 2021, but has faced multiple delays — mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a gazette notification, declaring that the census “shall be taken during the year 2027.”

The ministry did not specify when the process of counting India’s population — currently estimated at nearly 1.46 billion — would begin, but the process of house listing and enumeration is set to be complete before March 1, 2027, for most of the country, and by Oct. 1, 2026, for snow-bound and remote regions such as Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

The last census was conducted in 2011 and provided critical data for planning welfare schemes, allocating federal funds, and drawing electoral boundaries.

In 2027, for the first time since 1931 — when India was still under British colonial rule — caste details will be collected as well.

India’s caste system, which is rooted in Hindu scriptures, historically divided the population into a hierarchy that dictated people’s occupations, living areas, and marriage prospects based on their family of birth. While originally a Hindu practice, many non-Hindu communities in India also identify with certain castes today.

For centuries, those in the lowest ranks of the hierarchy have faced marginalization and social restrictions.

After gaining independence from Britain in 1947, India banned caste-based discrimination and created specific caste categories for affirmative action policies.

“Once you count the number of people of various castes, it is going to lead to a political empowerment because of those people who are underrepresented in politics, in elections, in jobs, in the private sector,” Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, political commentator and Narendra Modi’s biographer, told Arab News.

“India’s policy of reservations — which is otherwise known as positive discrimination in other countries like the US — is going to become more widespread and more systemic, and thereby it is going to lead to some amount of friction between various castes.”

India has specific caste categories for affirmative action policies, reserving up to 50 percent of government jobs and educational seats for marginalized groups. The census containing caste details may lead to altering the rate, as the number of lower caste Indians is much higher.

“We hope that they will be getting better representation. And other political parties will also have to give due weightage to people from these castes, which are not represented. So even in politics, you’ll have tickets being distributed to people from other castes,” Mukhopadhyay said.

“This is going to be the next wave of political empowerment of the existing underprivileged and underrepresented castes and communities.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced in April that counting castes in the upcoming census will “ensure that our social fabric does not come under political pressure” and “that society becomes stronger economically and socially.”

But the idea to include it came from the opposition, which for the past six years has been demanding that caste details be included in the census. The most vocal advocate of it has been Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Party and Modi’s key rival.

The census is likely to provide information that will not only inspire social change but may also impact the political scene, which has been dominated by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014.

“If there is one thing that can really counter communalism and majoritarian politics it is the caste. Rahul Gandhi picked up the caste census issue quite late, but he made it a point by raising the issue,” said Ambarish Kumar, political analyst and host of a news analysis show.

“If you look at any field, the small demography of upper castes dominates almost every field … The caste census is an attempt to address this grave anomaly. The caste census will bring the marginal communities into the focus of the government policies which are not there.”


Hong Kong hit by strong winds, heavy rain as Typhoon Wipha skirts past

Updated 2 sec ago
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Hong Kong hit by strong winds, heavy rain as Typhoon Wipha skirts past

  • Neighboring casino hub Macau issued its own top-level typhoon warning shortly after noon
  • More than 250 people sought refuge at government-run temporary shelters
HONG KONG: Hong Kong was battered by strong winds and heavy rain on Sunday as Typhoon Wipha skirted along China’s southern coast, with fallen trees and collapsed scaffolding spotted across the city.
Wipha was located around 140 kilometers (87 miles) to Hong Kong’s southwest as of 5 p.m. (0900 GMT), according to the city’s weather observatory.
Hong Kong’s highest tropical cyclone warning, T10, was in effect for around seven hours but was downgraded to the third-highest T8 warning at 4:10 p.m. as Wipha departed the city.
“Gale to storm force southeasterly winds are still affecting parts of the territory occasionally,” the observatory said.
“The intense rainbands of Wipha are persistently affecting the vicinity of Pearl River Estuary.”
Neighboring casino hub Macau issued its own top-level typhoon warning shortly after noon, with authorities suspending all public transportation services.
China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces were earlier put on high alert, according to state news agency Xinhua.
In Hong Kong, more than 250 people sought refuge at government-run temporary shelters.
Officials said they received more than 450 reports of fallen trees and a handful of flooding reports, including at a main thoroughfare in the Wong Tai Sin district.
A representative from Hong Kong’s Airport Authority earlier said that around 500 flights have been canceled due to the weather, while around 400 flights were scheduled to take off or land later in the day.
Authorities suspended Sunday’s classes at all day schools and daycare centers.
Local trains offered limited services while operations in open sections were suspended.
Wipha also brought heavy rains and flooding to the Philippines, where two people have been reported missing, according to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Hong Kong last hoisted the T10 warning signal for Super Typhoon Saola in 2023.

Eritrean president warns Ethiopia against waging war

Updated 53 min 27 sec ago
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Eritrean president warns Ethiopia against waging war

  • At the heart of the current tension, according to the Eritrean government, is landlocked Ethiopia’s long-held desire for a seaport.

NAIROBI: Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has warned neighbor Ethiopia against launching a new war between the bitter foes, with tensions high in the Horn of Africa region.
Eritrea and Ethiopia have had fraught relations since the former declared independence in 1993, with tens of thousands of people killed in a war between the two from 1998 to 2000.
At the heart of the current tension, according to the Eritrean government, is landlocked Ethiopia’s long-held desire for a seaport.
Afwerki, who has ruled Eritrea with an iron fist since independence, warned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that he would not be able to simply overwhelm his country by weight of numbers — Ethiopia’s population is 130 million, compared to just 3.5 million people living in Eritrea.
“If he thinks he can overwhelm (Eritrean forces) with human wave attack, (he is mistaken),” Afwerki told state television channel Eri-TV.
“Before dragging the people of Ethiopia into unwanted wars or using them for another political agenda, the country’s internal problems must be first addressed and solved,” he said.
He called Abiy’s actions a “reckless” attempt to “divert attention” from domestic problems.
Abiy signed a peace deal with Afwerki shortly after coming to power in 2018, but a violent conflict erupted in Ethiopia’s Tigray province from 2020 to 2022 as Eritrea’s forces backed rebels there fighting Ethiopian troops.
At least 600,000 people were killed in the conflict, according to an African Union estimate.
Although a peace deal ended the fighting, Eritrea has maintained a military presence in Tigray and relations between the neighbors have deteriorated.
Abiy has repeatedly said Ethiopia must have access to the sea, but by peaceful means.
Last month, a report by a US monitoring group accused Eritrea of rebuilding its army and destabilising its neighbors.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Ghebremeskel criticized the report by NGO The Sentry and blamed “the new tension in the region” on Ethiopia.
Eritrea had been under US arms sanctions that were lifted after the 2018 peace deal.
Eritrea is a single-party state which consistently ranks among the worst in the world for rights — in last place for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders, and 175th out of 183 for human development in 2022, according to the United Nations.


Tsunami alert after powerful quakes strike off coast of Russia: USGS

Updated 20 July 2025
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Tsunami alert after powerful quakes strike off coast of Russia: USGS

  • Earlier 5.0-magnitude and 6.7-magnitude earthquakes did not initially trigger a tsunami alert

MOSCOW: Three powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia’s far east on Sunday, triggering a tsunami alert, the US Geological Survey said.
Earlier 5.0-magnitude and 6.7-magnitude earthquakes did not initially trigger a tsunami alert, but were followed by a 7.4-magnitude quake at 0849 GMT, prompting the USGS to warn that “hazardous tsunami waves are possible” within 300 kilometers (186 miles) of the epicenter in the Pacific, off the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.


Russia says it downed 142 Ukrainian drones, including 27 over Moscow region

Updated 20 July 2025
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Russia says it downed 142 Ukrainian drones, including 27 over Moscow region

  • The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea

MOSCOW: Russia’s defense ministry and the mayor of Moscow said it had downed 142 drones overnight, including 27 over the Moscow region.

The drones were reportedly shot down over a number of regions in the European part of Russia, as well as over the Black Sea.

The latest attacks included four drones headed toward the Russian capital, which were downed on Sunday morning, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram around 1000 local time (0700 GMT).

According to Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia, four major airports serving Moscow – Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovskiy – were affected, resulting in 134 flights being redirected.

By 1000 Moscow time, only two airports remained closed to air traffic – Vnukovo in the Moscow region and Grabtsevo in the Kaluga region.


Heavy rains in South Korea leave 14 dead and 12 others missing

Updated 20 July 2025
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Heavy rains in South Korea leave 14 dead and 12 others missing

  • Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters of rain

SEOUL: Torrential rains that slammed South Korea for five days have left 14 people dead and 12 others missing, the government said Sunday.

One person was killed on Sunday after their house collapsed during heavy rain and another person was found dead after being swept by a swollen stream in Gapyeong, a town northeast of Seoul, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.

The ministry said eight people were discovered dead and six others were reported missing in the southern town of Sancheong on Saturday after heavy downpours caused landslides, house collapses and flash floods there.

A ministry report said that six people remain missing in Gapyeong and the southern city of Gwangju.

Earlier last week, three people were found dead in a submerged car, and a person was also killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain.

As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, about 3,840 people remain evacuated from their homes, the ministry report said. The rain stopped in most of South Korea on Sunday, and heavy rain alerts have been subsequently lifted throughout the country, ministry officials said.

Since Wednesday, southern regions have received up to about 600-800 millimeters (24-31 inches) of rain, according to the ministry report.