By using 40 containers and five batches of 21,600 tablets, NADRA made sure the hardware was assembled and delivered on time.
The delivery of 126,000 Android tablets to PBS was a significant part of the 7th Population and Housing Census, also known as “The Digital Census.” By using 40 containers and five batches of 21,600 tablets, NADRA made sure the hardware was assembled and delivered on time.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Chairman NADRA Tariq Malik gave Dr. Naeem-uz-Zafar, Chief Statistician, the final batch of 17,600 secure Android tablets for the digital census on Sunday.
Chairman NADRA also paid visits to the PBS headquarters’ dispatch centre, hardware hardening assembly line, and software development facility.
The distribution of these tablets in 495 census districts across the nation proved to be a difficult task, according to the officials. In order to supplement the extensive training of more than 90,000 enumerators in 932 venues, NADRA successfully completed the enormous exercise in nine days.
Malik praised the work of the more than 100-person NADRA team for completing the assembly and distribution of 126,000 Android tablets in such a short amount of time.
At the assembly line facility, the team successfully ruggedized and hardened the enormous number of tablets. “The digital census is a step that pulls Pakistan out of the ancient past and opens the door to a modern future,” Chairman NADRA said during his remarks at the event.
A step towards a digital Pakistan is going from scribbled responses on millions of sheets of paper to real-time validated data in apps on safe devices with satellite imagery.
Big data from the Digital Census would serve as the basis for Pakistan’s evidence-based policymaking, he claimed. It is important to note that NADRA used modern Agile methodology to develop a digital solution for the digital census in just three weeks.
The all-encompassing digital solution entails the creation and distribution of an android-based house listing and enumeration application that is synchronised with GPS and GIS, data centre services, call centre services, the establishment of technical support centres at each tehsil level, as well as an online web portal for the general public with other ancillary services.
The digital census application for Android supports online and offline use with seamless data synchronization. The pre-census, census stage, and post-census stages of the census will all be supported by the system. For the first-ever digital census activity, NADRA is the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ (PBS’) technological partner.
NADRA’s role in this massive national exercise is to offer IT-related services in order to make the census activity a resounding success. As a result, the census process will be more transparent, and by utilising technology and digitization, it will guarantee that the entire population is documented.