NEW DELHI: Two releases from the National Statistics Office in the space of two days shed light on how much India's companies have been investing, and will soon ask how much they plan to invest next.
On September 30, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the Annual Survey of Industries for 2024-25, which covers the country's registered factories. On October 1, it said it had begun a forward-looking survey of large private companies' investment plans, CAPEX 2026, which runs from October to December.
What the factories did in 2024-25
The registered manufacturing sector grew across almost every measure in 2024-25, the survey shows. Output rose 7.81 per cent and inputs 7.47 per cent, and gross value added, the value factories add to what they buy, grew faster still, by 9.59 per cent, from ₹24.58 lakh crore to ₹26.94 lakh crore.
Investment rose faster than output. Fixed capital grew 10.54 per cent over the previous year, and invested capital, which adds physical working capital such as stocks of materials, grew 11.10 per cent. Net income rose 9.68 per cent and net profit 7.73 per cent.
The number of registered factories rose 2.64 per cent, from 2.60 lakh to 2.67 lakh, of which 2.19 lakh were in operation during the year. Tamil Nadu had the most, 41,221, followed by Gujarat with 33,084 and Maharashtra with 27,379.
Employment grew too. The number of people engaged in registered factories rose 7.19 per cent, from 1.96 crore to 2.10 crore, adding more than 14 lakh people, and total emoluments paid to them rose 12.08 per cent. Food products was the largest employer among industries, with about 23.6 lakh people. Tamil Nadu had the largest share of factory employment, 14.99 per cent, followed by Maharashtra with 13.08 per cent and Gujarat with 12.99 per cent, while Maharashtra's factories paid the largest share of wages, 17.64 per cent of the national total.
Where the value is made
Five industries, basic metals, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food products, together contributed more than 45 per cent of manufacturing gross value added. By state, Maharashtra had the largest share of value added, 15.92 per cent, followed by Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh; these five states accounted for more than 54 per cent of the total. Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were the top five states for employment, with more than 56 per cent of all manufacturing jobs.
The next question: plans
The survey data, collected between October 2025 and June 2026, describe a year that ended in March 2025. The CAPEX 2026 survey is meant to answer a more current question. It will collect information on capital expenditure that large private companies have carried out in recent years, their provisional spending in the current year and their investment intentions for the next one, the ministry said, adding that it "will provide important inputs for understanding emerging investment trends". The ministry appealed to the companies selected for the survey to take part.
The government argues that its own spending has drawn private investment in. Public capital expenditure has risen from ₹3.39 lakh crore in 2019-20 to a budgeted ₹12.22 lakh crore in 2026-27, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in August that it "has actually helped the private sector come forward. They are now taking risks and investing," according to a PTI report.
In 2024-25, factories' fixed capital grew faster than their output. The CAPEX 2026 results will show whether companies expect to keep spending at that pace in a year of high oil prices and a weaker monsoon.
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