Delhi govt set to launch industry survey to map changes across sector

Officials familiar with the project said the data obtained will be crucial for policy decisions related to industrial licensing, economic planning, infrastructure requirements, labour welfare and identifying stressed or declining clusters.

New Delhi: The Delhi government is set to launch a citywide survey of industries to map the growth and changes across the manufacturing sector, which is likely to be an annual survey now onwards.

The survey will take stock of all organised industries. (Representative photo)

The survey will take stock of all organised industries, including units involved in manufacturing, repair services, gas and water supply and cold storage.

Officials said that the survey will cover the entire National Capital Territory of Delhi and will collect data from all industrial units registered under key Acts, such as the Factories Act, 1948 the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act 1966, the Companies Act 2013, the Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, the Societies Registration Act and the Cooperative Societies Act. Units registered with the Khadi and Village Industries Board and the Directorate of Industries (District Industries Centre) will also fall under the survey’s ambit.

Officials familiar with the project said the data obtained will be crucial for policy decisions related to industrial licensing, economic planning, infrastructure requirements, labour welfare and identifying stressed or declining clusters.

According to the notification: “Statistics officers will issue notices to industrial units specifying the format, deadlines and mode (physical or electronic) through which information must be furnished. The data collection period is scheduled between September 2025 and February 2026, and units will be required to submit information pertaining to the financial year April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.”

The last annual survey of industries in Delhi revealed that the number of factories in operation decreased by 12% from 2,407 in 2020-21 to 2,115 in 2021-22.

Officials said the survey will help the government build a granular database of the city’s organised manufacturing sector at a time when Delhi’s industrial landscape is undergoing transitions driven by regulatory changes, relocation pressures, the rise of service-sector clusters and the emergence of green and small-scale manufacturing.

The survey questionnaire has been divided into two parts. Part I seeks information on assets and liabilities, employment, labour cost, receipts and expenditure, inventories, inputs, products and distribution expenses. Part II focuses on labour statistics such as working days, man-days worked, absenteeism, labour turnover, man-hours worked, earnings and social security benefits.

As per the notification, designated statistics officers will verify submissions through inspection of records such as balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, muster rolls, attendance registers, payrolls and directors’ reports. Officials will be authorised to visit premises, inspect records and seek clarifications from owners or managers. They will also issue identity cards and authorisation letters to enumerators deployed for field verification.

“The results will be processed at the DES headquarters and eventually fed into national and state-level economic indicators,” said the official.

With Delhi’s industrial network spread across planned clusters as well as thousands of smaller units scattered across mixed-use areas, the updated survey is also expected to offer policymakers a rare full-scale snapshot of the city’s evolving industrial economy.