Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday gave much of the credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the remarkable surge reported recently in manufacturing jobs and wages for workers in FY 23, where they have risen by 7.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively, saying under his leadership, the sector has "not only rebounded but is now thriving".
Going by the reports of the annual survey of industries 2022-23 published by the government, nationwide employment in the sector has risen laudably from 1.6 crores workers in 2018-19 to 1.9 crores in 2022-23, and it also reports the rise in the concentration of employment in factories as a whole; the number of workers per factory has gone up from 65 in 2018-19 to 71 in 2022-23.
Wages per worker in the manufacturing sector have risen by 5.5 percent, driving average annual earnings for workers up to around Rs 2.05 lakh in 2022-23 from Rs 1.69 lakh in 2018-19, the data show.
"More jobs mean more food on the table and more wages mean better quality of life for lakhs of Indian families. Under PM Modi's leadership, the manufacturing sector has emerged as a job-creation powerhouse," Minister Sitharaman said, crediting several key initiatives of the Modi government, including the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, Make in India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, and Labour Law Reforms, for this remarkable turnaround, according to an official document.
Meanwhile, the key economic marker of Gross Value Added in the manufacturing sector is up by over 21 per cent from 2021-22 to 2022-23, while Sitharaman said that the surge "is a clear indication that India's manufacturing sector is firing on all cylinders," said Sitharaman.
The BJP-ruled states, like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, have emerged as the engines of the Indian manufacturing revolution, generating huge growth in both output and employment, a report said.
Driven by entrepreneurship, Gujarat stood at the top position with 17.7% of the total output; next was Maharashtra, industrial heartland, and accounted for 14.6% of the total output. Manufactured in Uttar Pradesh: 7.1% of the national manufacturing output.
In employment terms, it has really done well. Maharashtra has 12.8 percent of the total people in the manufacturing sector, followed by Gujarat at 12.6 percent, and Uttar Pradesh at 8.1 percent.
And the three BJP-ruled states have occupied the top positions in terms of number of factories under operation. Gujarat occupies the 2nd rank with 12.2 per cent, Maharashtra 3rd rank with 10.4 per cent, and Uttar Pradesh 4th rank with 7.5 per cent. The NDA-ruled Andhra Pradesh occupies the 5th rank with 6.5 per cent of factories.
States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh became the bedrock for India's manufacturing industries, jointly taking up more than 50 per cent of India's total manufacturing jobs, the survey said.
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