BENGALURU: With the process for national Census set to begin soon, the digital population clock at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) in Bengaluru is in focus.
Officials have urged the department of Health and Family Welfare and the state government to install more such clocks in public locations, to raise awareness about growing population on real time basis.
Prof CM Lakshmana, Head of Population Research Centre, ISEC, said, the clock is connected to the ISRO satellites for accurate time management. There is also a formula which accounts for births, deaths and migrations taking place before displaying the population numbers.
The clock was installed at ISEC on November 8, 2024, under a project undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in cities where health and family welfare research centres are operating to create awareness on population trends. It was manufactured and installed by a Lucknow-based firm, Electromed.
Explaining how the clock works, an official from the company said, the operation is based on the location’s geometric growth.
Date of the cumulative growth of the country, state and city has been tabulated by the Ministry. The base population data has been shared by the Ministry, using a formula and accounting that the average population growth rate is 0.01%, the population is calculated and displayed on digital population clock on real time basis.
The clock auto updates information every 70 seconds. According to the Ministry, there is a birth in India every two seconds in the country. There is also a death at the same pace in the country, so the population displayed is updated after a larger time gap.
Bengaluru’s digital population clock was one the first to be installed in India. Later, the clocks were installed in 18 other locations, including Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Guwahati, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir. For the installation, the Ministry had then allocated Rs five lakh to each centre, however, they were installed at the cost of Rs two lakh each.