Buoyed by higher crude petroleum and steel production, the index of the six ‘core' infrastructure industries have registered a respectable 6.8 per cent annual growth in February, compared with 4.2 per cent for the same month of last year.
Crude oil output recorded a 12.2 per cent year-on-year jump in February, as against 4 per cent in the same month of 2009-10, while saleable steel output rose 11.5 per cent in February (minus 0.2 per cent).
Refined petro-products and electricity production, too, notched up higher growth rates of 3.2 per cent and 7.2 per cent respectively, relative to their corresponding February 2010 levels of 0.7 per cent and 6.9 per cent.
However, cement (6.5 per cent versus 7.9 per cent) and coal (minus 5.7 per cent versus 6.7 per cent) returned lower growth rates.
For the April-February 2010-11 period, the growth rate for the six industries – having a combined weight of 26.68 per cent in the official index of industrial production – worked out to 5.7 per cent, which was better than the 5.4 per cent year-on-year increase during the corresponding 11 months of 2009-10.
During April-February this fiscal, the country generated 735,610.3 million units of electricity, marking a 5.4 per cent jump over the 698,235 million units during April-February 2009-10.
The corresponding cumulative output numbers were 466.62 million tonnes (mt) and 466.03 mt for coal (up 0.1 per cent); 194.61 mt and 186.57 mt (up 4.3 per cent) for cement; 34.397 mt and 30.732 mt (up 11.9 per cent) for crude petroleum; 139.33 mt and 135.968 mt (up 2.5 per cent) for refined petro-products; and 56.029 mt and 51.842 mt (up 8.1 per cent) for finished steel.