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New Delhi: India’s industrial output bounced back strongly in 2021-22, the year following the nationwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with output surpassing even the pre-pandemic years, according to the government’s survey on the industrial sector released Monday.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) Monday evening released its Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) for the years 2020-21 and 2021-22. According to MoSPI, the ASI “is the principal source of industrial statistics in India”.
The ASI usually comes out with a lag of two years from the year it is measuring, but COVID-related disruptions in 2020 meant that the survey for that year was further delayed, with results being released after three years.
According to the data, India’s industrial output stood at Rs 119.3 lakh crore in 2021-22 in current prices, which is 35.4 percent higher than the Rs 88.1 lakh crore it was at in 2020-21.
However, this bounce-back was expected, since industrial output contracted in 2020-21 as the lockdown affected all economic activity. Industrial activity contracted by nearly 2 percent in 2020-21, the data showed.
Notably, the data also showed that industrial output in 2021-22 recovered by such a degree that it surpassed the levels seen in the pre-pandemic years of 2018-19 and 2019-20. That is, industrial output in 2021-22 was nearly 33 percent higher than its level in 2019-20 and 28.5 percent higher than in 2018-19.
“The main drivers of this growth in 2021-22 were industries like manufacture of basic metal, coke and refined petroleum products, pharmaceutical products, motor vehicles, food products and chemical and chemical products,” MoSPI said in a release accompanying the ASI report.
These industries, taken together, contributed about 56 percent of the total GVA (gross value added) of the sector and showed a GVA growth of 34.4 percent and output growth of 37.5 percent in comparison to 2020-21,” it added.
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In keeping with the trends in output, the employment generated by India’s industrial sectors also jumped in 2021-22 as compared to the previous years. The data showed that Indian industry employed 1.72 crore people in 2021-22, up 7 percent over the employment level in 2020-21, and 3.5 percent higher than the employment generated in the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20.
“Due to Covid pandemic, there had been a marginal fall in employment in 2020-21 which was more than compensated in the subsequent year i.e. in 2021-22 with total estimated employment in the sector showing a robust growth of 7.0 % year-on-year (Y-o-Y),” the release said.
“In fact, the estimated number of persons engaged in this sector in 2021-22 has exceeded the pre-pandemic level (that is 2018-19) by more than 9.35 lakh,” it added.
The release noted the average salary earned per employee in the industrial sectors had gone up by 1.7 percent in 2020-21 and by 8.3 percent in 2021-22 in comparison to the respective previous years.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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