New Delhi, May 12 (IANS): India's industrial output rose by an impressive 13.5 percent in March, despite the withdrawal of fiscal stimuli packages and the tightening of monetary policy, taking the overall expansion for the previous fiscal to 10.4 percent.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had expanded by 0.3 percent in March last year and 2.8 percent during the whole of 2008-09.
Data released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation showed that the manufacturing output rose 14.3 percent in March, mining by 11 percent and electricity by 7.7 percent.
The cumulative growth for 2009-10 for these three sectors were 10.9 percent, 9.7 percent and 6 percent respectively.
"In terms of industries, as many as 14 out of the 17 industry groups have shown positive growth during the month of March 2010, as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year," the ministry said in a statement.