The biggest ever exercise in the history of mankind, ‘Census-2011" will be launched on Thursday covering over 1.2 billion residents of the country across all states and union territories. The mammoth operation will be formally launched by the President, Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil at 10.00 a.m on 1st April. The whole exercise will be conducted in two phases. The first phase from April to September this year will involve house listing and housing census, the second phase of operation will involve population in numeration which will be carried out between 9th and 28th of February next year. <br/><br/>Briefing media the Home Secretary, Mr. G.K. Pillai said that after the completion of the exercise, the National Population Register, NPR will be created in which the entire population of the country will be included in a single data base. The photograph of the entire population will be available along with their specific information of each individual in the NPR. More than 24 crore households will be visited and 25 lakh people will be engaged in this massive exercise. While the census will cost 2209 crore rupees, the National Population Register will involve an expenditure of 3756 crore rupees. <br/><br/>Replying to questions, Mr. Pillai made it clear that no information will be collected on caste lines as there has never been a caste-based census in independent India, though information on SCs and STs would be collected.