Hitch: Qualified personnel
An attempt was made during the previous Economic Census in 2005 to create a directory or register of business enterprises, but it could not succeed due to gaps in data collection during the operations. "The last time (in 2005) we tried to make such a register, we did not have enough qualified personnel to have a comprehensive data base. There were a lot of gaps and it could not succeed. This time we are trying harder," said Das.

The major hurdle for Mospi continues to be an acute shortage in human resources, which might mar the initiative during the sixth economic census as well. Most of the data collection for the population census, supposedly the most reliable one in India, is carried out by school teachers. However a Supreme Court directive prevents the use of school teachers for other census operations.

"The best people to collect data for any census are the school teachers and for our census, we cannot use them," regretted another Mospi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This leads to hiring of people on a contractual basis, who leave gaps during data collection. Moreover, we do not get enough funds to be able to afford an extensive infrastructure for this census."