ASUSE 2027–28 to Align with the Financial Year (April–March)

1. At a Glance

• ASUSE (Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises) is the official survey of India's unincorporated non-agricultural sector. It is run by the National Statistics Office (NSO), MoSPI, and has been conducted since 2021–22 [1].
• ASUSE 2027–28 is proposed to run from April 2027 to March 2028, so the survey period will match the financial year [1].
• The 2027–28 schedule adds new policy-focused questions. These cover gender-specific constraints on women entrepreneurs (asked for the first time), sources of electricity, investment over a longer reference period, and identification of handloom, power-loom and handicraft units [1].
• Why it matters for UPSC: this sector is a major source of employment and GVA and is linked to the incorporated sector [1]. It ties into informal economy, MSME, gender and statistical-reform questions (GS-III, GS-II).

2. Why in the News

• 26 Oct 2026: PIB announced the schedule changes proposed for ASUSE 2027–28, including moving the survey to the April–March cycle [1].
• 10 Sep 2026: NSO released district-level estimates from a large nationwide enterprise survey for the first time ("Unincorporated Sector at the District Level: Insights from ASUSE 2025") [6].
• 2026: NSO began publishing quarterly bulletins (QBUSE) on the unincorporated sector, including one for Apr–Jun 2026 [5].

3. Background & Evolution

• Rationale: Enterprises in this segment differ widely in activity, scale, organisation and operating conditions. Reliable, timely data is needed for policy and national accounting [1].
• Milestones:
• 2021–22 and 2022–23: first ASUSE rounds; combined results released in a press note of June 2024 [3].
• 2023–24 (Oct 2023–Sep 2024): third round [2].
• ASUSE 2025 (Jan–Dec 2025): moved to a calendar-year reference period [4]. It was the data base for the first district-level estimates [6].
• ASUSE 2026 (Jan–Dec 2026): design kept broadly aligned with ASUSE 2025. MoSPI sought stakeholder feedback on the schedule [7]. A revised sample design supports quarterly plus annual estimates [5].

• ASUSE 2027–28 (Apr 2027–Mar 2028): aligned with the financial year [1].

• Stakeholder process: Data User Conferences, consultations with stakeholder Ministries, expert-group deliberations, and inputs received during ASUSE 2026 [1].

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Full form	Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises [1]
Conducting body	NSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) [1]
Running since	2021–22 [1]
Coverage	Unincorporated non-agricultural establishments: manufacturing, trade, other services [1][4]
ASUSE 2027–28 period	April 2027 – March 2028 (financial year) [1]
Previous periods	Oct–Sep (2023–24) [2]; Jan–Dec (2025, 2026) [4][7]
Sub-national output	Sample design allows district-level estimates by participating States (continued from earlier surveys) [1]
Frequency of outputs	Annual reports plus quarterly bulletins (QBUSE) [5]
Ministry-specific request	Ministry of Textiles: 2 questions to identify handloom, power-loom and handicraft establishments [1]

Key numbers:

• 2021–22 → 2022–23: establishments +5.88%, workers +7.84%, GVA +9.83% [3]
• 2022–23 → 2023–24: establishments +12.84%, employment +10.01%, GVA +16.52% (current prices) [2]
• ASUSE 2025 district report: women make up about one-third of the workforce in 237 districts [6]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Economic

• The sector contributes significantly to employment and GVA and has linkages with the incorporated sector [1].
• Double-digit growth in 2023–24 in establishments (+12.84%) and GVA (+16.52%) [2].
• The new question on fixed-asset investment over a longer period will show the investment trajectory and business outlook of informal firms [1].
• Analysis: India's national accounts and Budget run on April–March. Aligning ASUSE with that cycle should make it easier to use the survey in GVA estimation and to compare it with FY-based data.

Social / Gender

• For the first time, ASUSE will record gender-specific constraints faced by women entrepreneurs in running and managing their establishments [1].
• The aim is an evidence base on female-led enterprises and on women's participation in economic activity [1].
• District data already shows women at about one-third of the workforce in 237 districts [6].

Environmental / Energy

• New questions on sources of electricity will map energy-use patterns and operating conditions across activities [1].
• Analysis: this could feed into rooftop-solar and energy-access policy for micro-enterprises.

Governance / Administrative

• The schedule was shaped by Data User Conferences, Ministry consultations and expert groups. It is a demand-driven statistical design [1].
• Analysis: changing the reference period three times (Oct–Sep → Jan–Dec → Apr–Mar) creates comparability breaks that users will need to account for.

Federalism

• District-level estimates by participating States support decentralised planning [1][6].

Cultural / Sectoral (Textiles)

• Handloom and handicraft "sit at the intersection" of the unincorporated economy and traditional knowledge systems. Granular data is described as indispensable for policy in this sector [1].

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• Jan–Dec 2025: ASUSE 2025 fieldwork [4].
• Late 2025: MoSPI circular sought feedback on the ASUSE 2026 schedule [7].
• 2026: QBUSE quarterly bulletins released, including Apr–Jun 2026 [5].
• 10 Sep 2026: first district-level estimates released, based on ASUSE 2025 [6].
• 26 Oct 2026: ASUSE 2027–28 changes announced, including FY alignment and new questions [1].

7. Prelims Hooks

• ASUSE is conducted by the NSO under MoSPI [1].
• ASUSE has been conducted since 2021–22 [1].
• ASUSE covers the unincorporated non-agricultural sector, not agriculture [1].
• ASUSE 2027–28 runs April 2027–March 2028, aligned with the financial year [1].
• ASUSE 2025 and ASUSE 2026 followed the calendar year (Jan–Dec) [4][7].
• ASUSE 2023–24 covered October 2023–September 2024 [2].
• First time in ASUSE 2027–28: questions on gender-specific constraints of women entrepreneurs [1].
• Two handloom, power-loom and handicraft identification questions were added at the request of the Ministry of Textiles [1].
• New questions in 2027–28 capture sources of electricity used by establishments [1].
• A new question captures investment in fixed assets over a longer reference period [1].
• The sample design allows district-level estimates by participating States [1].
• NSO released its first-ever district-level estimates of the unincorporated sector (from ASUSE 2025) on 10 Sep 2026 [6].
• QBUSE is NSO's quarterly bulletin on unincorporated sector enterprises [5].
• In 2023–24, unincorporated-sector GVA grew 16.52% at current prices [2].

8. Why the Survey Year Matters for GDP Numbers

• India's GDP base year is 2022–23. Until now, no ASUSE round matched that year exactly
• MoSPI's advisory committee on national accounts (ACNAS) decided on 20 Aug 2024 to move the GDP base year from 2011–12 to 2022–23 [8].
• The base year is a financial year (April 2022 to March 2023). But ASUSE 2022–23 ran from October 2022 to September 2023 [1][2].

• So only six months of that survey (Oct 2022 to Mar 2023) fall inside the base year.

• How informal-sector GVA is built, and why the survey dates matter

• GVA (gross value added) is the value of what a sector produces minus the cost of the inputs it used.
• MoSPI's method has been to build a benchmark (a starting-year figure) by multiplying the number of workers by the value added per worker. It then carries this figure forward to later years using price and volume indicators [9].

• If the survey year and the accounting year don't match, the benchmark itself has to be adjusted before it can be used.

• The calendar-year rounds had to be split across two financial years

• ASUSE 2025 (Jan–Dec 2025) covers the last quarter of FY 2024–25 and the first three quarters of FY 2025–26 [4].
• To get an FY figure, statisticians have to mix quarters from two different rounds, or adjust one round.
• ASUSE 2027–28 (April 2027 to March 2028) removes this step. One survey will give one FY figure directly [1].

9. The Two Gaps the Calendar Changes Leave Behind

• Any 12-month survey covers every season, so seasons are not the problem
• Oct–Sep, Jan–Dec and Apr–Mar each include the festival months and the harvest months once.

• The real breaks come from months that were never surveyed and from uneven spacing between rounds.

• Gap 1: October to December 2024 was not covered by any annual round

• ASUSE 2023–24 ended in September 2024 [2]. ASUSE 2025 began in January 2025 [4].

• Those three months are missing from the annual series.

• Gap 2: January to March 2027 will be missed the same way

• ASUSE 2026 ends in December 2026 [7]. ASUSE 2027–28 begins in April 2027 [1].

• So FY 2026–27 will have survey data for only nine of its twelve months.

• "Year-on-year growth" between these rounds does not cover 12 months

• The middle of ASUSE 2023–24 is around April 2024. The middle of ASUSE 2025 is around July 2025. That is roughly 15 months apart.
• ASUSE 2026 to ASUSE 2027–28 is again about 15 months apart.
• If you compare these rounds directly, you get about 15 months of growth labelled as one year, which makes growth look faster than it is.

10. What the 16.52% GVA Growth Figure Hides

• The number is at current prices, so it includes inflation
• Current prices means values in that year's rupees, with no adjustment for price rise.

• GVA grew 16.52% at current prices in 2023–24 [2]. Part of that is just higher prices, not more output.

• The average enterprise grew very little

• Establishments grew 12.84% and GVA grew 16.52% [2].
• Divide one by the other (1.1652 ÷ 1.1284): GVA per establishment rose only about 3.3%, still at current prices.

• If prices rose by more than about 3% that year, the average unit earned less in real terms.

• Units got smaller, not bigger

• Employment grew 10.01%, slower than the 12.84% growth in establishments [2].
• So workers per establishment fell by about 2.5% (1.1001 ÷ 1.1284).

• The sector grew mainly because more tiny units opened, not because existing units grew and hired more people.

• The earlier round looked different

• From 2021–22 to 2022–23, workers per establishment rose about 1.9% and GVA per establishment rose about 3.7% [3].
• Mains use: "more enterprises" does not mean "growing enterprises". Check the per-unit numbers before calling the sector healthy.

11. Counting Women Entrepreneurs Depends on How You Define Them

• Who counts as the "owner" changes the answer
• The UN Statistics Division has noted that enterprise surveys once asked about the "principal owner". Later they asked whether any owner is a woman. That change alone shifts the trend in women-owned firms [12].

• ASUSE's new gender questions will need a fixed, published definition of a "woman-led" establishment. Otherwise future rounds cannot be compared.

• Enterprise surveys tend to miss the smallest women-run units

• Women are over-represented in informal and household enterprises, and standard enterprise surveys capture only part of these [12].

• Home-based work such as tailoring or food processing is the hardest to list and visit.

• The survey only sees women who managed to start a business

• ASUSE visits establishments that already exist.
• A woman who never started because of a constraint (no loan, no safe workspace, no time left after care work) is not in the sample.
• So the new data will show what limits women who are already running firms, not what stops women from starting one.

12. Unincorporated Is Not the Same as Informal

• ASUSE groups enterprises by legal form, not by informality
• "Unincorporated" means the business is not a registered company, for example a sole proprietorship or partnership.

• Such a unit can still be GST-registered and keep proper accounts. Being unincorporated does not make it informal.

• The ILO changed the global rules in 2023

• The 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) adopted a new resolution on statistics of the informal economy in October 2023. It replaces the 1993 and 2003 standards [10].

• It gives operational definitions of the formal sector, the informal sector and the household own-use sector. It also adds "informal productive activities", meaning an activity can be partly informal [11].

• Why this matters for India

• SDG indicator 8.3.1 measures the share of informal employment in total employment [11].
• If ASUSE tables are not also classified by the ICLS criteria, India's "informal sector" figure cannot be compared directly with other countries' figures.

13. What NSO Should Fix Around the 2027–28 Switch

• NSO should cover the January–March 2027 quarter
• ASUSE 2026 already uses a sample design that produces quarterly estimates (QBUSE) [5].

• Running that quarterly sample for one more quarter, or a short bridging round, would give FY 2026–27 a complete year of data.

• NSO should publish a linking table across the three calendars

• The table should show how Oct–Sep, Jan–Dec and Apr–Mar rounds are joined, and set out growth over exact 12-month periods.

• This follows the practice of the GDP base revision, where a new 2022–23 series replaced the 2011–12 series through a committee process (ACNAS) [8].

• NSO should report real growth and per-unit numbers in the headline release

• The release should give GVA at constant prices (adjusted for inflation), and GVA and workers per establishment, next to the current-price totals.

• This stops readers from treating the 16.52% current-price figure as real growth [2].

• NSO should publish the gender module under fixed definitions

• The release should state the definition of a woman-led unit and report constraints under both "principal owner" and "any owner" [12].
• It should also map ASUSE categories to the 2023 ICLS definitions so India can report on SDG 8.3.1 on a comparable basis [10][11].

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: In 2023–24, establishments grew 12.84% but employment grew only 10.01%, so workers per unit fell. The sector grew through more tiny units [2]
• Data: GVA grew 16.52% at current prices in 2023–24, but GVA per establishment rose only about 3.3% [2]
• Data: Women are about one-third of the workforce in 237 districts (ASUSE 2025 district report) [6]
• Report/Committee: ACNAS, first meeting on 20 Aug 2024, decided to move the GDP base year to 2022–23 [8]
• Report/Committee: 21st ICLS Resolution concerning statistics on the informal economy, October 2023 [10]
• Comparison: The UN Statistics Division found that switching from "principal owner" to "any owner" changes the trend in women-owned firms [12]
• Comparison: SDG 8.3.1 (share of informal employment), the ILO's global measure, needs ICLS-based definitions to compare countries [11]

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: Indian economy — growth, development and employment; inclusive growth; mobilisation of resources; MSMEs.
• GS-II: Government policies and interventions; issues relating to women; transparency (official statistics).
• GS-I: Role of women (women's entrepreneurship).

Question stems:

1. "Robust, high-frequency data on the informal sector is a precondition for evidence-based policy." Discuss with reference to recent reforms in the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises. (15 marks)
2. Examine the significance of capturing gender-specific constraints of women entrepreneurs in official surveys. How can such data reshape policy for women-led micro-enterprises? (10 marks)
3. India's statistical system is moving towards district-level and quarterly estimates. Critically evaluate the benefits and the challenges of comparability. (15 marks)

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• PLFS (Periodic Labour Force Survey): companion household survey on employment, also moved to quarterly and monthly releases.
• Annual Survey of Industries (ASI): the incorporated/registered manufacturing counterpart to ASUSE.
• GDP base-year revision and national accounts: ASUSE feeds informal-sector GVA estimation.
• Udyam Registration and the MSME definition: overlaps with the establishments ASUSE counts.
• National Policy on Official Statistics / NSO restructuring: the governance context of MoSPI reforms.
• Handloom and handicraft schemes (Ministry of Textiles): the direct user of the new questions.
• Women entrepreneurship (e.g., WEP by NITI Aayog): links to the gender module.
• Economic Census: the enumeration of all establishments that sampling frames rely on.

17. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Unorganised sector (Economy): ASUSE surveys unincorporated enterprises, which is how the unorganised sector is defined: small proprietary or partnership units.
• Gross Value Added (Economy): The survey's headline output is the sector's GVA and its growth, which feeds national accounts.
• Current prices (Economy): The 16.52% GVA growth is at current prices, so it includes inflation and overstates real growth.
• Base year revision (Economy): Moving the GDP base year to 2022–23 explains why aligning the survey year with the financial year matters.
• National Statistics Office (Geography): NSO under MoSPI runs ASUSE, QBUSE and the new district-level releases.
• Informal employment (Economy): Unincorporated is not the same as informal; this concept separates job conditions from legal form.

18. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Agriculture is excluded. ASUSE covers manufacturing, trade and other services only [1][4].
• Calendar confusion: the order is Oct–Sep (2021–22 to 2023–24) → Jan–Dec (2025, 2026) → Apr–Mar (2027–28). Do not assume ASUSE was always on the FY [1][2][4].
• ASUSE vs ASI: ASI covers registered/incorporated factories, while ASUSE covers unincorporated enterprises.
• "First time" claims: the gender-constraints questions are new in 2027–28 [1]. District-level estimates are not new: the design already allowed them in earlier surveys, and NSO's first district report came in Sep 2026 [1][6].
• Requesting Ministry: the handloom and handicraft questions came from the Ministry of Textiles, not the Ministry of MSME [1].