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Census Portal Corrected After Showing Arunachal Town as Chinese 'Medog'

The swift fix highlights risks in relying on third-party map data for a digital headcount.

Overview

  • India’s Registrar General, which acknowledged the labeling error Saturday, said it raised the issue with the map services provider and the map was corrected.
  • The mix-up was spotted by retired Group Captain Mohonto Panging Pao during self-enumeration on se.census.gov.in, who said he could not proceed after seeing Pasighat tagged as “Medog.”
  • Self-enumeration asks residents to pin their homes on a built-in map, so a wrong place name can block submissions, and about 12 lakh households have already used the portal.
  • MapmyIndia urged agencies to adopt verified Indian geographic data over foreign map APIs for critical platforms such as the Census portal.
  • The episode hit a sensitive nerve in Arunachal Pradesh, where India has rejected China’s attempts to assign Chinese names to places in the state.