Key Details
The proposed changes would make the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) more useful for examining how small, non-agricultural businesses operate, while changing when the survey is conducted.
Proposed Change | What the Survey Would Capture |
|---|---|
Women entrepreneurs | For the first time, gender-specific constraints faced in operating and managing establishments |
Electricity use | The different sources of electricity used by establishments |
Investment | Fixed-asset investment over a longer reference period than the existing question |
Traditional industries | Questions identifying handloom, power-loom and handicraft establishments, requested by the Ministry of Textiles |
Survey calendar | An April–March cycle beginning with ASUSE 2027–28, in place of the January–December cycle |
NSO has invited comments on the draft establishment questionnaire by 15 November 2026. These are proposed survey changes, not findings about the sector.
New Questions Would Reveal Differences Hidden in Broad Enterprise Figures
ASUSE supplies official data on the activities and economic operations of India’s unincorporated, non-agricultural establishments. The proposed questions would add detail that current aggregate measures cannot provide. Asking women entrepreneurs about the constraints they face could help distinguish barriers to running a business from the overall count of women-owned establishments.
Information on electricity sources would show more about the conditions under which these businesses operate. A longer look-back period for fixed-asset investment would help capture spending that a shorter reference period may miss; it would not, by itself, establish whether businesses expect to expand.
Handloom and Handicraft Units Would Be Easier to Identify
At the Ministry of Textiles’ request, NSO proposes two questions to distinguish handloom, power-loom and handicraft establishments within the wider survey. Identifying these activities more clearly would allow their operating conditions to be studied separately, rather than treating them only as part of broader industry groups.
Financial-Year Alignment Would Change the Survey Calendar
NSO proposes to conduct ASUSE 2027–28 from April 2027 to March 2028. Aligning its fieldwork with the financial year is intended to make the data easier to use alongside other enterprise statistics and the National Accounts.
To preserve the quarterly series during the changeover, NSO plans to survey January–March 2027 using the existing ASUSE 2026 schedule, before starting the revised cycle in April. Existing features including questions on e-commerce and digital payments, quarterly estimates, and provision for district-level estimates by participating states — would continue.
Policy Relevance
The additional questions could give policymakers more specific evidence about business constraints: whether problems reported by women entrepreneurs vary by activity, how establishments meet their electricity needs, and where investment is taking place. The value of the handloom and handicraft questions will depend on whether they identify these establishments consistently enough for useful analysis.
The calendar shift could improve the use of ASUSE in financial-year economic statistics. NSO’s transition arrangements also matter: users of quarterly data will need a clear account of how the old and new survey schedules relate when interpreting trends across 2027.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: Which questions will give policymakers actionable evidence about women entrepreneurs and traditional-industry establishments without making the survey too burdensome for small businesses to answer?
Follow the Full Press Release Here: Enhanced Stakeholder Responsiveness in ASUSE 2027–28