Key Details
The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) 2024–25 measures India’s registered factory sector. Its newly published detailed tables show how output, value added, capital and employment are distributed — not just how their totals changed.
Finding | 2024–25 Result |
|---|---|
Factories with ₹10 crore or more in plant and machinery | 15.84% of operating factories; 59.66% of persons engaged; 76.82% of output; 78.07% of net value added |
Factories with up to ₹5 crore in plant and machinery | 78.69% of operating factories; 34.32% of persons engaged; 17.61% of net value added |
Factories with annual output of ₹500 crore or more | 3.57% of operating factories; 62.07% of output |
Top five states by gross value added (GVA) | Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh together accounted for 54.87% |
Corporate manufacturing GVA | Up 9.28% from 2023–24 |
The investment-size and annual-output figures are two different ways of grouping factories; they should not be added together.
A Small Share of Factories Produces Most of the Value Added
Factories with at least ₹10 crore in plant and machinery accounted for just under one-sixth of operating units but generated more than three-quarters of net value added. Factories with up to ₹5 crore in machinery formed nearly four-fifths of the total, yet generated less than one-fifth of net value added. The contrast is not only about production: the higher-investment group also engaged nearly 60% of people working in the surveyed factories.
Looking at factories by annual output makes concentration appear sharper still. Those producing ₹500 crore or morein a year represented 3.57% of operating factories but generated 62.07% of output. This is a different classification from machinery investment; it describes how much production came from the highest-output factories, not why they reached that scale.
Jobs, Output and Value Added Have Different Leaders
Food-product factories accounted for the largest share of persons engaged in any single industry, at 11.24%. Basic metals led instead on GVA, with 11.58%. Across states, Tamil Nadu had the most operating factories and people engaged, while Maharashtra had the largest GVA share.
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh together generated 54.87% of factory-sector GVA. These differences show why factory counts, jobs and value added should be examined separately when assessing a state’s industrial base.
Growth Figures Describe the Sector, but Are Not the New Finding
Corporate manufacturing GVA rose 9.28% over 2023–24, while the number of persons engaged in that segment increased 7.57%. Across the factory sector, GVA per person engaged rose 2.25%. These value figures are at current prices, so the per-person increase should not be treated by itself as a rise in real labour productivity.
MoSPI published headline ASI results in September. The newly available detailed tables add the factory-size, industry and state distributions that make the latest release worth examining separately.
Policy Relevance
The results expose a distinction that an aggregate manufacturing growth rate cannot: many smaller registered factories employ people, while production and value added are concentrated elsewhere. The data can help policymakers examine whether constraints differ by factory size and industry, without assuming that a small factory’s lower share of value added is caused by its size alone.
State comparisons also need the right measure. A state leading in factory numbers or jobs may not lead in value added. ASI covers the registered factory sector, not all manufacturing activity, so these patterns cannot be extended to unregistered enterprises without other evidence.
Follow the Full Publications Here: ASI 2024–25 Press Note | ASI 2024–25, Volume I