Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises
Also called: ASUSE · Topic: Economic Data: Census, NSS, Surveys and Statistical Tools · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) is a yearly sample survey run by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under MoSPI. It covers unincorporated non-agricultural enterprises. These are small businesses that are not registered as companies, such as tailoring shops, small eateries, repair workshops and street-side manufacturing units. Together they make up the informal, or unorganised, sector. ASUSE has run every year since 2021-22, and quarterly bulletins were added in 2025. It matters because this sector employs a very large share of workers, and the official factory survey does not cover it. National accounts use it for GDP: GVA (value added) for these units is worked out as ASUSE's GVA per worker × the number of workers from PLFS.
Example
ASUSE 2023-24 (October 2023 to September 2024) counted about 3.4 crore manufacturing workers in unincorporated units. The Annual Survey of Industries counted only about 2.10 crore in registered factories in 2024-25. So most of India's manufacturing workforce sits in the informal units that only ASUSE measures.
Don't confuse with
- Annual Survey of Industries (ASI): covers only registered factories, meaning units with 10 or more workers using power, or 20 or more without power, under the Factories Act 1948. ASUSE covers the small unincorporated units that ASI leaves out.
- Economic Census: a complete count of all establishments, done once every few years. ASUSE is an annual sample survey of one part of them.