3 min readNew DelhiApr 28, 2026 04:53 PM IST
India’s industrial growth cooled only slightly in March to 4.1% year-on-year from 5.1% in February despite the disruptions caused by the war in West Asia, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed on Tuesday. At 4.1%, while industrial growth as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is the lowest in five months, it has defied expectations somewhat.
The industrial production figures come days after commerce ministry data showed on April 20 that output of India’s eight core industries – coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity – contracted by 0.4% in March in what was one of the first signs of the impact of the West Asia war on economic activity in India, with production of fertiliser dropping 24.6% year-on-year – the largest decline on record. With the eight core industries making up around 40% of the IIP, the former’s performance is usually seen as a lead indicator of the latter. However, at 4.1%, the March IIP growth is better than what several economists had expected.
In 2025-26 as a whole, India’s industrial production rose 4.1%, broadly unchanged from 4% in 2024-25.
In March, the headline IIP growth was supported by a 5.5% rise in mining activity and 4.3% increase in manufacturing production. Electricity generation, on the other hand, rose only 0.8%, down from a growth of 2.3% seen in February.
In terms of the goods produced, capital goods posted the biggest year-on-year increase at 14.6%, with output of construction goods also rising robustly by 6.7%. These two classes of goods together make up about a fifth of the IIP.
Meanwhile, production of primary goods was 2.2% higher in March, while that of intermediate goods rose 3.3% compared to the same month last year. On the consumer front, production of durable goods rose by 5.3%. Non-durables saw their output increase by 1.1%.
This is the last set of IIP numbers to be released with 2011-12 as the base year. On June 1, MoSPI will release the revised IIP series which will have 2022-23 as the base year. The new series is part of a broader overhaul of India’s official statistics, with the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) and GDP series released earlier this year in February. As previously reported, in the new IIP series, MoSPI has proposed swapping factories that have shut down with new ones, among other changes.
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