With India's population fast reaching the 10-billion mark, the Census Department is gearing up for its millennial headcount, with a data users' conference in New Delhi scheduled for April. Deputy Director of Census Operations V. Venkateswaran said that when the 2001 Census is released, the official history of the Indian census would be 130 years old, having begun in 1871. This is the 13th national census and the sixth population enumeration exercise in independent India.