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Recently, the government released India's revised Index of Industrial Production (IIP) series with 2022-23 as the new base year (replacing 2011-12), alongside April 2026 industrial output data showing a slowdown in growth.

April 2026 Performance

IIP growth slowed to 4.9% in April 2026, down from 5.8% in April 2025. Of the four sectoral indices, three grew at a slower pace and one contracted. Mining and quarrying recorded a sharp decline of over 5% year-on-year. Manufacturing sector output grew at 6.2%, marginally slower than 6.3% in the corresponding month of 2025.

Within manufacturing — which constitutes approximately 75% of the IIP basket — six industries contracted. Notable contractions include: coke and refined petroleum products (–0.4%), wearing apparel (–7%), and wood products other than furniture (–12.5%, the steepest decline). On the positive side, electrical equipment output surged 19.2%.

Use-Based Classification (April 2026)

Under use-based classification, IIP tracks six categories: primary goods, capital goods, intermediate goods, infrastructure/construction goods, consumer durables, and consumer non-durables. Growth slowed in three categories — primary goods (0.8%), consumer durables (4.3%), and consumer non-durables (2.8%) — compared to April 2025. However, capital goods output growth accelerated sharply to 16% and infrastructure/construction goods to 7.1%, signalling continued momentum in investment activity. Intermediate goods grew at 7.7%, slightly faster than the previous year.

Revised IIP Series: Key Changes

The base year revision to 2022-23 is the latest in a broader statistical overhaul of major macroeconomic indicators in 2026, following the GDP revision. The index value for the base year is set to 100, against which subsequent growth is measured.

Key changes in the new series:

• Expanded product basket: The revised IIP now covers 1,042 products mapped to 463 item groups, up from 839 items and 407 item groups in the old series, improving representativeness.
• Broadened sectoral coverage: Beyond the traditional categories of mining and quarrying, manufacturing, and electricity, the new series incorporates gas supply, water supply, sewerage, and waste management activities.
• Improved granularity: The mining sector index now separately classifies fuel minerals, metallic minerals (including rare earth minerals), and non-metallic minerals (including minor minerals). Electricity generation is now disaggregated into renewable and non-renewable sources, enabling sharper tracking of India's green energy transition.
• Revised weights: Sector and industry weights have been realigned with the updated Gross Value Added (GVA) 2022-23 series, ensuring the index better reflects the current structure of India's economy.
• Linkage formula: A bridging formula has been provided to maintain comparability between the old and new series.

About IIP

IIP is a monthly macroeconomic indicator published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under MoSPI. It measures short-term changes in the volume of industrial production and serves as a high-frequency barometer of industrial health — critical because GDP data is released only quarterly. It informs RBI monetary policy, government fiscal decisions, and analyst forecasts of economic momentum.