ASI 2024-25: Manufacturing workforce crossed 21 million, factories up 2.6%

India's manufacturing sector showed a marginal uptick in the number of factories in 2024-25, although the number of workers in the sector grew at a faster pace compared to the previous year, latest data from the Annual Survey of Industries revealed. The growth in wages to workers also increased at a marginally higher pace than earlier years, the ASI data 2024-25 released on Wednesday shows.

India had 267,000 registered manufacturing units in 2024-25, a rise of 2.64% from 260,000 such factories in 2023-24, the survey revealed. This was in line with the trends in the past year when the number of factories increased by 2.65% in FY24 from a year ago and by 1.33% in FY23. The number of factories in operation rose by 2.61% in FY25 to 218,000 from 212,000 in FY23.

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The ASI data, which comes with a lag of about a year, gives the country’s official industrial statistics and provides an insight into its manufacturing sector. It covers the entire country, and includes all factories registered under the Factories Act, 1948, that are employing 10 or more workers using power, and those employing 20 or more workers without using power.

In 2024-25, employment in the registered manufacturing sector continued to expand. The estimated number of persons engaged increased by 7.19% to 21 million from 19 million in ASI 2023-24.  Total emoluments paid to the workforce also increased by 12.08 % in 2024-25 to Rs 8.03 lakh crore as compared to 2023-24. In 2023-24, the total persons engaged in the sector increased by 5.92% year on year while total emoluments paid rose by 11.86%.

On the production side, output grew by 7.81% with increase in input by 7.47%, resulting in GVA growth of 9.59% in ASI 2024-25 to Rs 26.94 lakh crore. The growth was, however, slower than 11.89% in ASI 2023-24. Net profit also increased by 7.73% to Rs 11.55 lakh crore in 2024-25.

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“As a general view, these movements of indicators suggest towards continued expansion in industrial activity, supported by higher investment, employment growth and value addition,” said an official release.

ASI 2024-25 reveals that Tamil Nadu retained its position as the state with the highest number of establishments reported at 41,221, followed by Gujarat (33,084), and Maharashtra (27,379). In terms of individual share of states in all-India GVA, Maharashtra recorded the highest in 2024-25, followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh. Collectively, these five states accounted for more than 54% of the total manufacturing GVA of the country. These five states accounted for 53.30% of total establishments at all India level.