Industrial sector growing at fast pace, can aim 9% growth: NITI CEO

India's industrial sector is growing at a fast pace and the country can now aim to achieve 9 per cent plus economic growth, NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference here after release of Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Subrahmanyam said India's manufacturing sector has been generating sufficient number of jobs.

According to the ASI data, the number of persons employed in manufacturing industries rose 7.5 per cent in 2022-23 to 1.85 crore from 1.72 crore in the previous year.

The estimated number of persons engaged in this sector in 2022-23 exceeded the pre-pandemic level (2018-19) by more than 22.14 lakh, a MoSPI statement said adding that at the same time, average emolument also registered an increase over the previous year.

"The industrial sector in India is growing fast, it is something people have been unnecessarily criticising," he said.

While pointing out that manufacturing growth is broad based and is coming from all sectors, Subrahmanyam said,"India can aim at 9 per cent plus growth."

The Reserve Bank of India has revised upwards the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.2 per cent from 7 per cent on rising private consumption and revival of demand in rural areas.

He also observed that a lot of people (rating agencies and multilateral agencies) will be revising India's economic growth rate on the upper side.

"We have wiped out the effect of Covid," the NITI Aayog CEO said.

According to the ASI data, the average emolument per person engaged in this sector had gone up by 6.3 per cent in 2022-23 in comparison to 2021-22.

The number of total persons engaged in manufacturing industries increased to 1,84,94,962 in 2022-23 from 1,72,15,350 in 2021-22.

The figure was 1,60,89,700 in 2020-21, 1,66,24,291 in 2019-20 and 1,62,80,211 in 2018-19, the ASI data showed.

The results show that the Gross Value Added (GVA) grew by 7.3 per cent in current prices in 2022-23 over 2021-22.

The increase in input was 24.4 per cent while output grew 21.5 per cent in the sector in 2022-23 over 2021-22.

The year 2022-23 witnessed a growth in this sector for majority of economic parameters like invested capital, input, output, GVA, employment and wages and it even surpassed the pre-pandemic level in absolute value terms.

The main drivers of this growth in 2022-23 were industries like manufacture of basic metals, coke & refined petroleum products, food products, chemical and chemical products and motor vehicles, it stated.

These industries, taken together, contributed about 58 per cent to the total output of the sector and showed output growth of 24.5 per cent and GVA growth of 2.6 per cent in comparison to 2021-22.

Among the major states, in terms of GVA, Maharashtra ranked first in 2022-23 followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. The top five states, taken together contributed more than 54 per cent to the total manufacturing GVA of the country in 2022-23.

The top five states employing highest number of persons in this sector were Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka in ASI 2022-23.

Taken together, these states contributed about 55 per cent to the total manufacturing employment in 2022-23, it stated.

The fixed capital also increased to Rs 41,21,794.58 crore in 2022-23 from Rs 37,26,354.44 crore in 2021-22. The invested capital rose to Rs 61,39,212.55 crore from Rs 55,44,931.75 crore in 2021-22.

The field work for this survey was carried out during November 2023 to June 2024 for ASI 2022-23.