India’s current economic environment is favourable for private investments, with the country emerging as a “bright spot” amid a challenging global landscape, according to a CII survey released on Saturday.
The pan-India survey, an ongoing initiative, aims to complete responses from 500 firms by the first week of February. Interim results, based on a sample of 300 firms across various industry sizes (large, medium, and small), show that nearly 97 per cent of the sample firms plan to increase employment in both 2024-25 and 2025-26.
Moreover, 79 per cent of respondents reported that their firms have added more employees over the past three years. The survey, conducted over the last 30 days, also indicates that 75 per cent of respondents believe the current economic environment is conducive to private investments.
“Given that 70 per cent of the firms surveyed said that they would invest in FY’26, an uptick in private investments might be on the cards over the next few quarters”, said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.
“Even though geopolitical fault lines have disrupted global supply chains and have posed serious challenges to global growth, India has emerged as a bright spot amid this challenging global backdrop. The sound economic policies initiated by the Government helped revive the economy with emphasis on public capex-led growth,” stated CII.
The survey indicates that planned investments are expected to drive a 15 to 22 per cent increase in direct employment over the next year, with the manufacturing and services sectors seeing similar growth rates. In terms of indirect employment, the interim results show that both manufacturing and services firms expect around a 14 per cent rise in indirect employment, above current levels.
Most firms surveyed reported that filling senior management and supervisory positions takes between 1 to 6 months, while vacancies for regular and contractual workers are filled more quickly. This suggests a need to address the availability of skilled staff at higher levels within the firms.
“With the two critical drivers of growth – private investments and employment – looking positive, we feel confident that the overall growth is likely to remain around a stable 6.4-6.7 per cent this year and is likely to be 7 per cent in FY26”, said Banerjee.
Regarding wage growth, which influences personal consumption, 40 to 45 per cent of the sample firms surveyed reported an increase in average wages for senior management, managerial/supervisory roles, and regular workers in the range of 10 to 20 per cent for FY25. This trend was similar in FY24.
“These are promising results, exhibiting confidence about some of the important aspects of the economy. That said, results of the survey, when read along with various other emerging economic indicators, will help in a comprehensive understanding of the economy,” underlined the Director General of CII.
