India is stepping into the New Year on an optimistic note, going by the impressive performance of the eight core industries in November.

These sectors have a weightage of 38 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). Powered by a strong show on the coal, cement and electricity front, the output of the core industries grew 6.7 per cent in November, higher than the 3.2 per cent growth recorded in the same month last year, and 6.4 per cent in October 2014, official data released on Wednesday showed.

Raising hopes The strong show has raised hopes that the factory output for November will enter the positive territory after contracting 4.2 per cent in October.

The eight core industries are coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

For April-November 2014, their output grew 4.6 per cent against 4.3 per cent in the same period last year.

Growth drivers While coal output for November grew 14.5 per cent (3.3 per cent in November 2013), cement output grew 10.2 per cent (3.9 per cent). Electricity generation recorded a robust growth of 10.2 per cent against 6.2 per cent in the same month last year.

Refinery products output saw an increase of 8.1 per cent against a contraction of 5.2 per cent in the same month last year. The good news has come at a time when the Centre is looking to accelerate the pace of economic reforms.

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