The National Statistics Office (NSO) has proposed aligning the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) with the financial year from 2027–28, while expanding its questionnaire to capture gender-specific barriers faced by women entrepreneurs, investment trends and the operational characteristics of small businesses.
A senior official of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) said the next survey round is proposed to run from April 2027 to March 2028, replacing the existing January–December cycle.
“The change is expected to improve the survey’s usefulness for national accounting and make its findings more comparable with other economic statistics compiled on a financial-year basis. ASUSE, conducted by the NSO since 2021–22, provides data on the economic activities and operating characteristics of enterprises in the unincorporated non-agricultural sector, an important source of employment, livelihoods and economic output,” the official said, asking not to be named.
The proposed changes follow consultations with stakeholder ministries, data users, and expert groups, as well as an assessment of emerging information requirements during the ongoing ASUSE 2026 exercise.
The officer further said that for the first time, the survey will include questions on the gender-specific constraints faced by female entrepreneurs in running their establishments.
“The information is intended to help assess the challenges affecting women-led enterprises and provide an evidence base for policy discussions on women’s participation in economic activity. New questions to capture challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, investment trends and energy use; feedback invited until November 15. The revised questionnaire will also seek details of the different sources of electricity used by establishments, offering a broader picture of energy-use patterns and the conditions under which small businesses operate,” the officer added.
Another officer said that the addition will capture investment in fixed assets over a longer reference period than the existing schedule, and the expanded coverage is expected to provide a better understanding of investment trajectories and business investment behaviour.
“At the request of the textiles ministry, two questions will be introduced to identify establishments engaged in handloom, power-loom and handicraft activities. The move is intended to improve the availability of granular data on these segments, which have distinct policy and information requirements,” said the second officer.
The proposed revisions aim to make the survey more responsive to the needs of policymaking ministries and researchers without diluting its role as a source of official economic statistics.
“To ensure continuity in quarterly estimates during the transition, the survey will also be conducted for January–March 2027 using the existing ASUSE 2026 schedule. The new financial-year cycle will begin in April 2027, avoiding a break in the quarterly statistical series,” the second official added.
Other measures introduced in previous rounds will continue, including a revamped sampling design that enables participating states to generate district-level estimates. The survey will retain globally accepted classifications and computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) systems for data collection.
“MoSPI has placed the proposed establishment schedule on its website and invited comments from policymakers, ministries, researchers and other data users. Suggestions, in the prescribed format, can be sent to nssocpd.coord@mospi.gov.in and tc.dpd@mospi.gov.in by November 15, 2026. The draft questionnaire and feedback format are available at the ministry’s website,” said the first official, cited above.
The ministry officials said stakeholder feedback would help refine the proposed information requirements and improve the relevance and policy utility of ASUSE 2027–28.