Paying a heartfelt tribute to Ratan Tata, who passed away on October 9, 2024, Chandrasekaran called him a man whose personality, integrity and strategic vision shaped business for a generation
In a year-end note to the employees, Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran shared his ambition of creating 5 lakh manufacturing jobs in the next five years as the company scales operations across sectors. In his New Year message, Chandrasekaran also called it "a new manufacturing golden age for India."
In his opening note, Chandrasekaran called 2024 "another unpredictable year" marked by geopolitical instability and a slight brightening of the macroeconomic outlook. He also mentioned that he looks forward to 2025 with a sense of hope and optimism after a year marked by loss.
"Military conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan raged on, exacerbating humanitarian crises in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We also witnessed citizen-led movements in Bangladesh and South Korea," the Tata Group chairman wrote.
Paying a heartfelt tribute to Ratan Tata, who passed away on October 9, 2024, Chandrasekaran called him a man whose personality, integrity and strategic vision shaped business for a generation.
The chairman in his message further mentioned that while AI-led breakthroughs in healthcare and mobility can help the whole of humanity, manufacturing has the potential to transform our economy in India. He discussed that global supply chains continue to shift in India’s favour as the world’s largest businesses strike a new balance between resilience and efficiency.
He also underlined that amid relentless geopolitical instability, the equation has tilted firmly toward resilience—and India, with its vast talent pool and growing manufacturing capacity, is poised to benefit.
"Our Group plans to create 500,000 manufacturing jobs over the next half-decade. These will come in part from the aforementioned investments in facilities across India—factories and projects that will produce batteries, semiconductors, electric vehicles, solar equipment and other critical hardware destined to play a central role in the economy of tomorrow," Chandrasekaran announced.
He asserted that this is in addition to many services jobs they expect to introduce across retail, tech services, airlines, and hospitality, among other sectors. According to the company website, the group has 10.28 lakh employees at present.
Currently, India's manufacturing sector is under pressure as its Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to11-month 11 month low of 56.5 in the month of November, as per the HSBC final India Manufacturing PMI. However, it noted that the pace of growth remained above its long-run average.
In regards to employment, the survey underlined that factory employment in India increased for the ninth month in a row in November but the rate of job creation softened as compared to October.
India’s economic growth moderated to a seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent in the second quarter of FY25. Manufacturing grew at a sluggish 2.2 per cent during the period.