New Delhi, Aug 31 (Agency) Driven mainly by the coal, cement, and steel sectors, India’s core output, comprising of eight key infrastructure sectors, grew 8% year-on-year (YoY) in July 2023. “The combined Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) increased by 8.0 per cent (provisional) in July 2023 as compared to the Index of July 2022,” said the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MOSPI) in an official release on Thursday. The data showed production in all sectors, such as coal, steel, natural gas, cement, electricity, refinery products, fertilisers, and crude oil, increased in July 2023 over the corresponding month of last year.
The eight core industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). As per the official data, coal production increased by 14.9% year over year in July 2023, while crude oil production increased by 2.1%. Production of natural gas, petroleum refinery products, and fertilisers increased 8.9%, 3.6% and 3.3% year-on-year, respectively, in July this year. Steel production grew 13.5% in July 2023 over July 2022, while cement production increased 7.1%. Electricity generation increased by 6.9 per cent in July 2023 over July 2022.