ICT adoption linked with 76 pc increase in labour productivity in unincorporated sector: Report
New Delhi: The information and communication technology (ICT) adoption is associated with a 76% increase in the labour productivity, highlighting the role of the digital technologies in improving enterprise performance, an SBI Research report said on Thursday.
According to the report, that analysed the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE 2025) by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), beyond such productivity gains, ICT adoption increases the likelihood of firm registration on average by 84 percentage points.
The sector-wise impact of ICT adoption is positive and statistically significant across manufacturing (64 percentage points), Trade (82 percentage points) and other services (86 percentage points).
Registered enterprises have 6.90 percentage points higher probability of having credit as compared to the non-registered enterprises, the report mentioned.
According to the findings, female proprietary enterprises have a 2.44 per cent lower probability of accessing formal credit than male proprietary enterprises. Moreover, registered enterprises have average loan amount of Rs 5 lakh compared to just Rs 75,000 for unregistered enterprises.
“Government-linked registration systems are associated with deeper formal business practices such as access to loan from formal sources. Udyam Assist-registered enterprises score 15.92 points, followed by Udyam registered enterprises (15.45 points) and GST registered enterprises (13.51 points), respectively, as compared to unregistered enterprise,” said the report.
Further, average loan amount for unregistered enterprises is approximately Rs 3 lakh, while it is Rs 5.5 lakh for registered and Rs 10 lakh for Udyam and Udyam Assist registration.
“We recommend for affordability of ICT technologies, creating a score card for Udyam registered enterprises and also the provision for maintain audited bookkeeping as key mechanisms to formalise the enterprises,” the report noted.
Unincorporated establishments have risen from 7.34 crore in 2023-24 to 7.92 crore in 2025, registering a growth rate of 7.9 per cent compared to 2023-24.
Rural enterprises grew by 19.1 per cent (from 3.56 crore to 4.24 crore), while urban enterprises registered a stronger growth of 25.2 per cent (from 2.94 crore to 3.68 crore).
Number of workers have risen from 12.06 crore in ASUSE 2023-24 to 12.8 crore in ASUSE 2025. The rural employment grew by 14.5 per cent (from 5.24 crore to 6 crore), while urban employment increased by 18.7 per cent (from 5.73 crore to 6.80 crore).