MSME Ministry, MoSPI sign pact to build national database of businesses

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) have signed an agreement to strengthen India’s Statistical Business Register, creating a structured mechanism for sharing data on registered enterprises.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) provides for sharing unit-level information available through the Udyam Registration ecosystem with MoSPI through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The data will be used for preparing and strengthening the National Statistical Business Register (NSBR).

Udyam data sharing

Under the agreement, the two ministries will establish a two-way API mechanism to facilitate the exchange of relevant information. The arrangement is intended to institutionalise the flow of data rather than depend on periodic or ad hoc exchanges between departments.

The government said information drawn from the Udyam Registration ecosystem would help improve the coverage, consistency and reliability of business information used for official statistical purposes.

National business register

A Statistical Business Register is a central and regularly updated database of statistical units engaged in economic activities within a defined geographical territory. It covers businesses, enterprises, establishments and other relevant economic units, along with their key characteristics and relationships.

The NSBR is intended to provide a common statistical framework for identifying businesses operating across the economy. Integrating administrative datasets such as Udyam Registration can help keep the register updated while improving the consistency of information collected from different government sources.

Better economic surveys

A comprehensive business register can also serve as the basic sampling frame for economic surveys. It allows statistical agencies to identify the target population for surveys and select representative samples from a more consistent database.

The register can additionally support the production of business demography statistics, including information on the creation, survival and closure of enterprises. A common register can reduce inconsistencies that arise when different surveys and administrative databases use separate lists of establishments.

Administrative data push

The agreement marks another step towards greater use of administrative records in India's official statistics system. Udyam Registration provides the MSME Ministry with a large administrative database of formally registered micro, small and medium enterprises.

Linking relevant information from this ecosystem with the NSBR could help MoSPI improve its statistical picture of businesses without depending entirely on standalone surveys and censuses for updating enterprise information.

The Statistical Business Register is also intended to facilitate integration across different datasets, allowing statistical agencies to establish a more consistent universe of businesses for surveys and economic analysis.

Officials sign pact

The MoU was signed by Dr Rajneesh, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner in the Ministry of MSME, and Dr Dalip Singh, Additional Director General in MoSPI. Senior officials from both ministries were present during the signing.

The agreement sets out the terms for sharing Udyam's unit-level information through APIs and establishes a formal framework under which the two ministries will cooperate on the development of the national register.

Data access restricted

While administrative information will be used to strengthen the statistical system, access to Statistical Business Register data itself is restricted. Under MoSPI's data-access framework, SBR data is available to Central and state or Union Territory government agencies subject to authorisation and is not shareable with non-government agencies.

The latest agreement therefore primarily strengthens the government's statistical infrastructure rather than creating a publicly searchable database of individual businesses.