Regular employees in CPSEs dropped 3.1% to 0.81 million in FY24: Survey

The number of regular employees hired by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) declined 3.14 per cent to 814,018, while that of contract workers rose 8.8 per cent to 704,565 in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24), according to the latest Public Enterprises Survey released last week.

 

CPSEs across categories employed a total of 1.5 million people in FY24, reflecting a growth of 2.05 per cent.

 

The survey further noted that the share of skilled employees among total regular employees stood at 81.06 per cent (659,812 persons) in FY24. The Power Transmission, Heavy & Medium Engineering, and Telecommunications and Information Technology sectors had the highest proportion of skilled regular employees, while the Industrial and Consumer Goods, Trading & Marketing, and Coal sectors had the lowest.

 

In FY24, women constituted 9.5 per cent of total employees in CPSEs, increasing to 77,625 from 74,867 in FY23. Among women employees, 31.8 per cent held managerial or executive positions, 9 per cent were in supervisory roles, and 59.3 per cent were in worker categories. The Coal, Defence Production, and Telecommunications and Information Technology sectors employed the highest percentage of women.

 

As of March 31, 2024, CPSEs employed 17,252 Divyangjan (persons with disabilities), representing about 2.13 per cent of total employment.

 

The representation of SCs, STs, and OBCs in CPSEs is detailed in the survey. Out of a total of 8,12,000 employees, 4,45,000 belong to the reserved categories.

 

Most CPSEs were established after India gained Independence when the private sector lacked the capacity for large capital-intensive enterprises. There were only five CPSEs in 1951, which grew to 84 by 1969. The number of CPSEs tripled to 260 in FY11-12 and reached 448 in FY24. 

 

In FY24, there were 272 operating CPSEs, contributing a gross revenue of Rs 36.08 trillion. The distribution of these CPSEs by turnover for FY24 indicates that 166 CPSEs have gross revenues of less than Rs 1,000 crore, 59 have revenues between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 5,000 crore, eight between Rs 5,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore, 22 between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 25,000 crores, eight between Rs 25,000 crore and Rs 1 trillion, and nine have revenues exceeding Rs 1 trillion. Notably, these nine CPSEs contribute 73.10 per cent of the total gross revenue of all operating CPSEs.

 

According to the report, there were 66 CPSEs listed on the stock exchanges as on March 31, 2024, as against 63 at the end of March 31, 2023. Market capitalisation (mcap) of the 66 companies was over Rs 37 trillion, while, of the 63 CPSEs, the same was Rs 16.85 trillion as on March 31, 2023, which means an increase of over 121 per cent. Major contributors to the increase in mcap are NTPC Ltd, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Coal India Ltd, and Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd.

 

Overall net profit of operating CPSEs rose to Rs 3.22 trillion in FY24 as against Rs 2.18 trillion in FY23, showing an increase of over 47 per cent. A major proportion of increase in profit is contributed by Petroleum (Refinery & Marketing) Cognate Group.