India’s eight core industries’ production plunges in Feb

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India's eight major industries' output plummeted during February 2021, official data showed on Wednesday.</p>
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The Index of Eight Core Industries' reading for last month showed a decline of 4.6 per cent in output from an expansion of 6.4 per cent in the same month last year. On a sequential basis, the output of eight major industries had expanded by 0.9 per cent in January 2021.</p>
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ECI index comprises 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).</p>
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These industries comprise coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity.</p>
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On a sector specific basis, the output of coal, which has a weight of 10.33 per cent in the index, showed a decline of (-) 4.4 per cent in February 2021 over the same month of the previous year.</p>
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Similarly, the output of refinery products, which has the highest weightage of 28.04, declined 10.9 per cent compared to the corresponding month of the last fiscal.</p>
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The electricity generation, which has the second highest weightage of 19.85, decreased by 0.2 per cent, whereas the steel production was down 1.8 per cent last month.</p>
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The extraction of crude oil, which has an 8.98 weightage, declined by 3.2 per cent during the month under consideration.</p>
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The sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 6.88, fell by 1 per cent. Cement production, which has a weightage of 5.37, slid by 5.5 per cent in the month under review. Fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage — only 2.63 — also fell by 3.7 per cent.</p>
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<em><strong>(IANS) </strong></em></p>