India’s industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), 4.9% year-on-year in April, according to data released by the statistics ministry on Monday. The release marks the debut of the new IIP series with 2022-23 as the base year, replacing the 2011-12 series and introducing significant methodological and coverage changes.
IIP data is a vital high-frequency indicator that signals shifts in manufacturing momentum, investment demand, and overall economic growth.
The April reading is the first official estimate under the revised series, which aims to better reflect the evolving structure of India’s industrial economy, emerging manufacturing segments and newer infrastructure-related activities.
This shift to 2022-23 is the 10th revision of base year of the all-India IIP. The first IIP was prepared with 1937 as the base year, which was subsequently revised to 1946, 1951, 1956, 1960, 1970, 1980-81, 1993-94, 2004-05 and 2011-12.
Industrial production in March, under the old series, had expanded by 3.2%. The comparable figure in April 2025 stood at 5.7%
What are the changes?
The revised index expands coverage beyond the traditional sectors of mining, manufacturing and electricity to include gas supply, water supply, sewerage and waste management activities. The mining and quarrying component has also been broadened to include minor minerals and rare earth minerals. It has also been split into dedicated indices for fuel minerals, metallic minerals and non-metallic minerals.
The energy basket also includes separate tracking of renewable and non-renewable electricity generation, allowing policymakers to better monitor India’s evolving energy mix.
According to the statistics ministry, the new series comprises 463 item groups (1,042 mapped products) compared with 407 in the previous series, including 120 newly added products such as CCTV cameras, stents, aircraft and spacecraft parts, magnetic stripe cards, articles of non-woven textiles, and vaccines. Meanwhile, 64 outdated products including kerosene, CFL lamps, printing machines, sewing machines and certain tyre tubes have been dropped from the basket.
However, the six use-based categories—primary goods, capital goods, intermediate goods, infrastructure/construction goods, consumer durable goods and consumer non-durable goods—have remained the same from the 2011-12 series.
The data has also been made more representative by excluding permanently shut factories and including operating units and newly commissioned large factories.
Manufacturing output, which carries the highest weight in the index, grew 6.2% in April, while mining contracted 5.1% and electricity generation and gas supply rose 4.9%. The newly introduced water supply, sewerage and waste management activities increased 6.6%.
The revised series uses gross value added and output data from 2022-23 to derive weights, and adopts the latest National Industrial Classification (NIC) 2025 for dissemination. The ministry will also release sectoral linking factors to enable comparison between the old and new series.
Economists said the rebasing is expected to provide a more representative picture of industrial activity by capturing structural changes in manufacturing, the rise of new technologies, and the growing importance of infrastructure-linked services.