Existing studies on the rural non-agricultural sector in India have not examined profit rates to understand the growth of the sector. Most studies have examined the rapid increase in this sector’s workforce size, and some have probed the share of this sector in the rural National Domestic Product (NDP). This paper addresses this gap. It examines the profit rate and growth in output (net value added) of the rural organised manufacturing industries segment, in the period 1998–1999 to 2007–2008. For comparison, the same parameters have been examined for urban industries. It is found that the profit rate of rural industries grew faster than urban industries. Given the significance of the profit rate, the factors driving change in the profit rate have been identified in this paper. It is found that worsening wage share and improving output-capital ratio underpinned by the rising labour productivity were responsible for rising profit rates of rural industries.

现有关于印度农村非农业部门的研究没有检查利润率以了解该部门的增长。大多数研究都检查了该部门劳动力规模的快速增长，有些研究调查了该部门在农村国民生产总值（NDP）中的份额。本文解决了这一差距。它考察了 1998 年至 1999 年至 2007 年至 2008 年期间农村有组织的制造业部门的利润率和产出增长（净增加值）。为了比较，城市产业也采用了相同的参数。研究发现，农村工业的利润率增长快于城市工业。鉴于利润率的重要性，本文确定了推动利润率变化的因素。