The paper ‘Evolution of sampling frame for surveys in unorganised sectors of Indian economy’ (country paper from India) started with the recommendation of the first National Income Committee suggesting conduct of large-scale sample surveys on various sectors of Indian economy. It highlights the subjects covered by the National Sample Survey (NSS) Organisation in various rounds starting with the first round of NSS conducted during October 1950 to March 1951. The paper gave an overview of how the sampling frame evolved over the years for selection of samples in different stages of sampling. It discusses the data contents of various types of sampling frames (viz., list of villages/enumeration blocks for Population Census as well as Economic Census and list of Urban Frame Survey (UFS) blocks) for selection of sample first stage units (FSUs). It also discussed the procedure of stratification and selection of sample first stage units based on the information in the sampling frames. The paper described in detail the procedure of listing of households/enterprises, stratifying them as per the information collected in the listing stage and the method of their selection. For illustration, it gives the sampling design of some important surveys in the unorganised sector with special reference to the NSS 55^th round survey scheduled to commence from July 1999. The NSS 55^th round survey is an integrated survey on household consumer expenditure, employment-unemployment and informal non-agricultural enterprises. Different schedules being canvassed in the 55^th round of NSS were also included in the paper. 

For enhancing the utility of the sampling frame of first stage units, the paper suggested the following: 

• Collecting information on number of enterprises and employment by broad group of non-agricultural activities for each UFS block for the purpose of effective stratification and selection of sample first stage units in the surveys on unorganised sector.

• Forming UFS blocks with permanent boundaries.

• Segmenting large villages of the country into a specified number of smaller segments (i.e. hamlet-groups) with permanent boundaries

• Regular updating of sampling frames (FSUs)

• 
  Preparing a list of big establishments in the unorganised sector (i.e., a Business Register) for collection of data on a census basis and thus excluding them from the coverage of the surveys in the unorganised sector.