India Can Aim 9% GDP Growth With Faster Industrial Sector Expansion, Says NITI Aayog CEO

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

Addressing a press conference 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% 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% plus growth."

The Reserve Bank of India has revised upwards the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.2% from 7% 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% 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 results show that the Gross Value Added grew by 7.3% in current prices in 2022-23 over 2021-22. The increase in input was 24.4% while output grew 21.5% 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% to the total output of the sector and showed output growth of 24.5% and GVA growth of 2.6% 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% 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% to the total manufacturing employment in 2022-23, it stated.

The fixed capital also increased to Rs 41.2 lakh crore in 2022-23 from Rs 37.2 lakh crore in 2021-22. The invested capital rose to Rs 61.4 lakh crore from Rs 55.4 lakh crore in 2021-22.

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