Tamil Nadu accounts for largest number of Factories in India

Chennai, Nov 22 (KNN) Amongst all states, Tamil Nadu retains the top spot with the maximum number of factories including micro, small and mid-sized units, 10,000 more than Gujarat, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) seventh edition of its annual report Handbook of Statistics on Indian States 2021-22.  

As per the report, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh are the next top four states on the list of 36 states and union territories across India.

The report, released by the RBI on November 19, covers sub-national statistics on socio-demographics, state domestic product, agriculture, price and wages, industry, infrastructure, banking and fiscal indicators across Indian states over various time periods ranging from 1951 to 2021-22. 

According to the latest (2019-20) data in the report sourced from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), Tamil Nadu had 38,837 factories, up 45 per cent from 26,790 factories as of 2009-10 and 1.85 per cent from 38,131 factories as of 2018-19. In comparison, Gujarat had 28,479 factory count, growing at a faster rate of 82 per cent from 15,576 as of 2009-10 and 6 per cent from 26,842 as of 2018-19.

Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh had 25,610, 16,924, and 16,184 factories as of 2019-20. 

Importantly, out of all India count of 2,46,504 factories as of 2019-20, which jumped by 55 per cent from 1,58,877 as of 2009-10, Tamil Nadu had a share of 15.7 per cent vis-a-vis 11.5 per cent share of Gujarat, 10.3 per cent of Maharashtra, 6.8 per cent of Andhra Pradesh, and 6.5 per cent of Uttar Pradesh. 

Tamil Nadu has ranked on the top due to its diverse manufacturing sector. The state features among the leaders in several industries like automobiles and auto components, engineering, pharmaceuticals, garments, textile products, leather products, chemicals, plastics, etc., according to India Brand Equity Foundation.

The state ranks first among the states in terms of the number of factories and industrial workers and its gross state domestic product (GSDP) is estimated to be $320.27 billion in 2022-23, growing a CAGR of 11.27 per cent between 2015-16 and 2022-23. 

Regions with the least presence of factory units were Ladakh with only three factories, Andaman & Nicobar Islands with 15 units, Sikkim with 84 units, Arunachal Pradesh with 116 units, Meghalaya with 158 units, etc. 

However, industry-wise, the central bank cited data from the MSME ministry, based on the National Sample Survey (NSS) 73rd round conducted in 2015-16, that estimated 6.33 crore units across the country. The MSME unit count had increased 75 per cent from 3.61 crores as per the previous (fourth) all-India census of MSMEs undertaken by the government during 2006-07. Out of 6.33 crore MSME units, 1.96 crores were in the manufacturing segment while 2.30 crore were in trading units and 2.06 crore were in other services.  (KNN Bureau)