In order to give an accurate picture of industrial production in the country, the government will soon come out with a new series of data on factory output that will do away with obsolete items and add those products which have entered the markets in recent years.
The new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) will also have a recent base of 2004-05 for calculating factory production that will reflect industrial scenario better than base of 1993-94 used currently.
The factory output at present comprises of 543 items.
With the revision of the base the items for the calculation of IIP would increase.
“We have not yet frozen the items to be included in the revised IIP but data collection work has been more or less finalised,” a DIPP official said, adding that the exercise is likely to be completed soon.
Department of Industrial Promotion and Policy (DIPP) and the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) are working towards moving the base year for IIP to 2004-05 from the present 1993-94.
Citing reasons for revision in the base year, the official said it is being done because there is a change in the production in the past one decade.
According to Crisil Principal Economist D K Joshi the shifting of the base year will make the index more representative and accurate.
Often the present IIP series is criticised for having items whose significance has declined over a period of time, Mr. Joshi said.
The new index would be a better indicator of the industrial production and help policy makers and market participants.
The industrial output data comes out on a monthly basis and has 17 sub-heads under the industry group.
However, there is also a broad category comprising of mining, manufacturing, electricity and a general category.
For the month of August, industrial growth catapulted to a 22-month high of 10.4 per cent.
Manufacturing output grew by 10.2 per cent in August, mining by 12.9 per cent and electricity production by 10.6 per cent. Of the 17 industry groups, 14 showed positive growth.
On the basis of use-based industrial break-up, consumer durables production grew by 22.3 per cent, basic goods by 10 per cent and intermediate goods by 14.3 per cent.
