Companies optimistic current environment conducive for private investments: CII
New Delhi: With an optimistic outlook for the Indian economy, industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday said that 75 percent of companies believe that the current environment is conducive for private investments and look forward to a significant hiring in the industry. It also said that this positive sentiment is further bolstered by the fact that over 70 per cent of firms surveyed plan to invest in FY’26, where the potential private investment is set to rise by 97 per cent, leading to an uptick in hiring for the industry.
The pan-India survey is an ongoing initiative, which would be completed for 500 firms by the first week of February. The interim results are based on a sample of 300 firms spread across all industry sizes — large, medium and small firms. The survey, which was conducted over the past 30 days, revealed that about 97 per cent of the sample firms are likely to increase employment in both 2024-25 and 2025-26, while 79 per cent of the respondents’ said that they added more people over the past three years.
Commenting on the survey reports, Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of CII said that 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. “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 CII said.
The average increase in direct employment due to planned investments in the next year is expected to be in the range of 15 to 22 per cent between the manufacturing and services sectors respectively. “Similar expectations were seen in the interim results on indirect employment with manufacturing and services firms expecting about 14 per cent increase in indirect employment respectively over and above the existing levels of employment,” the survey said.
The CII further said that majority of the firms surveyed indicated that it takes anywhere between 1 to 6 months to fill in vacancies of senior management, management/supervisory level, while regular and contractual workers take less time to fill in a vacant position indicating the need to fill the availability of skilled staff at the higher level in sample firms.
On wages growth, which has an impact on personal consumption, the survey noted that 40 to 45 per cent of sample firms surveyed saw an increase in average wage growth for senior management, managerial/ supervisory roles and regular workers in the range of 10 to 20 per cent in FY 25. However, it was observed that the trend was similar in FY 24.
“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. These are promising results, exhibiting confidence about some of the important aspects of the economy. That said, the results of the survey, when read along with various other emerging economic indicators, will help in a comprehensive understanding of the economy," said Banerjee.
