The Union Cabinet led by PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the conducting of census of India 2021 and updating of the National Population Register. This was revealed by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar today. Addressing the media, Javadekar said that no document or bio-metric will be required for the updating of NPR. "Cabinet has approved the conducting of census of India 2021 and updating of National Population Register. It is self declaration, no document, bio-metric etc required for it," he said. Cabinet has approved expenditure of Rs 8,754.23 crore for the exercise of Census of India 2021 and Rs 3,941.35 crore for updation of National Population Register (NPR).

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The purpose of NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every "usual resident" of the country. A resident is considered to be someone who has lived in an area for at least six months or more, or a person who intends to live in an area for the next six months or more. Every usual resident of India is supposed to register for NPR.

The NPR exercise will be held between April and September 2020 in all states and Union Territories except Assam. The data for NPR was initially collected in 2010 during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. It was the updated in 2015 with door-to-door surveys.

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Apart from this, Javadekar also announced that the government has approved the creation of post of Chief of Defence Staff. "The officer to be appointed as Chief of Defence Staff will be a four star General and will also head the Department of military affairs, he said. Government sources told news agency ANI that armed forces will fall under ambit of Dept of Military Affairs which will have appropriate expertise to manage military affairs. They said that Chief of Defence Staff will head it.  

The Cabinet has also approved organisational restructuring of Indian Railways. Existing eight Group A services of the Railways will be reorganised into a Central Service called Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS).