Taking the authorities by surprise, the Indian economy notched up a healthy growth of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) this fiscal, powered in a large measure by a robust stimulus packages-aided industrial expansion.
The unexpectedly high GDP (gross domestic product) growth — not only way above the 6.1 per cent increase clocked in the first quarter this fiscal but also more than the 7.7 per cent growth posted in the second quarter of 2008-09 — prompted the government, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well as other economic think-tanks to toy with raising their ‘conservative’ growth projections to more than 7 per cent for the entire fiscal year.
While the manufacturing sector witnessed a smart 9.2 per cent expansion during July-September as compared to a 3.4 per cent growth in the first quarter this fiscal and 5.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2008-09, the services sector also saw a turnaround with community, social and personal services growing by a healthy 12.7 per cent.
