New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) As Indian embarks on the journey to become a developed nation, the country needs to create 100 million jobs to meet the employment needs of the growing workforce, Tata Sons Chairman, N Chandrasekaran, has stressed.

The Tata Group has also doubled down on creating more manufacturing jobs in the country, as the whole ecosystem is brimming with multiple opportunities for the Indian companies, especially 500,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

According to Chandrasekaran, as the Tata Group invests in semiconductors, precision manufacturing, assembly, electric vehicles, batteries, and related industries, it can create five lakh manufacturing jobs in the next five years.

Sectors like semiconductor manufacturing have a "multiplier effect" and can create multiple indirect jobs. “We need to create 100 million jobs towards becoming a developed nation,” he said during an event organised by the Indian Foundation for Quality Management.

Nearly one million people enter the workforce in the country every month, making job creation in manufacturing essential for the future growth of the country.

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the leadership team of Tata Sons and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), which are building a Rs 91,000 crore mega semiconductor fabrication facility in Gujarat's Dholera.

In March, PM Modi laid the foundation stone of the Tata-PSMC chip plant in Gujarat. The fab construction will generate over 20,000 direct and indirect skilled jobs in the region. The Tata Group’s semiconductor plant in Assam will produce 4.83 crore semiconductor chips per day, along with generating 15,000 direct and up to 13,000 indirect jobs once operational.

The Tata Group is geared up for a new iPhone assembly plant in the country that is likely to become operational soon.

The job growth rises as in FY24, India’s manufacturing sector saw a 7.4 per cent rise in employment, with 1.3 million new jobs created — up from 1.1 million in FY22.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently credited PM Modi for the recently reported remarkable surge in manufacturing jobs and wages for workers in FY23, where they have risen by 7.6 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively.

As per the government's Annual Survey of Industries 2022-23, nationwide employment in the sector has achieved a laudable rise from 1.6 crore workers in 2018-19 to 1.9 crore in 2022-23, while the concentration of employment in factories has also been rise to rise, with the number of workers per factory going up from 65 in 2018-19 to 71 in 2022-23.

Meanwhile, the key economic marker of Gross Value Added (GVA) in manufacturing, has risen by over 21 per cent from 2021-22 to 2022-23.