MC EXCLUSIVE Centre plans AI-powered district-level business register to gauge sentiment surveys

To ensure more up-to-date and reliable data, the government plans to integrate information that currently lies in silos.

The Centre is working on a district-level aggregate register of all the companies operating in India – known as the Statistical Business Register - which will be equipped with artificial intelligence features and used to conduct business sentiment and outlook surveys, Moneycontrol has learnt from people familiar with the development.

Currently, business sentiment and outlook are gauged through the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which also surveys manufacturing and services firms every month on their outlook for the year ahead. The government plans to supplement this with web or email-based sentiment surveys, once the new Statistical Business Register (SBR) is in place.

The SBR will serve as a comprehensive database of enterprises operating at the district, state, and national levels, and will be the backbone for developing an Integrated Official Business Statistics system.

“We will not just collect information at the state level but go down to the district level. The plan is to create a dynamic register,” said a person aware of the development.

At present, business data is fragmented across several departments. While the Economic Census, conducted every five years, aims to capture this information, the eighth census is yet to commence, and the seventh was shelved due to lack of ratification from several states.

To ensure more up-to-date and reliable data, the government plans to integrate information that currently lies in silos. The SBR will combine datasets from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), and the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI).

A working group has also been set up to facilitate the development of the register. In its second phase, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) plans to launch an AI-powered search engine to help users access data more effectively. The statistics generated from the SBR will be used for a wide range of purposes, including GDP estimation, assessing industrial performance, and monitoring employment and growth trends. Officials also believe the data could assist in market analysis, helping identify demand centres and investment opportunities.

The proposed register will be part of the MoSPI’s broader efforts to reform India’s statistical system. Last year, the ministry announced an annual capex survey to track capital expenditure intentions, the first edition of which was released last month.