As caste is included, when will new Census in India be held and wrapped up?

After years of delays set in motion by the coronavirus pandemic, the national census will likely be started soon and officials aim to complete it by the end of next year, according to a report.
The central government has not yet issued an official timeline for the new census, which was originally supposed to be held between 2020 and 2021.

Preparatory activities done
"It may begin soon as whether to include or not the caste enumeration was only delaying the entire exercise," an official told Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity.
In March, the Union Home Ministry had informed a parliamentary standing committee that the preparatory activities for the countrywide survey had been completed. "Many of the census-related preparatory activities have been completed and technological updation is in progress," the ministry had said at the time.

First digital census
The upcoming census is set to be the 16th such exercise in India and the first digital one. A mobile app for the collection of data and a portal for management and monitoring of various census-related tasks have already been developed.
The first synchronous and complete census was conducted in India in 1881 under the British rule. Since then, the exercise has taken place every 10 years, except for a five-year delay in the latest census due to COVID-19.

Caste survey included
The government on Wednesday announced that caste data will be part of the new census. This means that the number of questions to be asked from each household will increase by at least one. The HT report said there could be up to 32 total questions in the survey. The census -- the largest countrywide survey -- helps the government in planning and policymaking processes while providing key inputs about the impact of existing schemes.