New Delhi, May 31 (IANS): Base effect sky rocketed India's eight major industries' output during April 2021.

The Index of Eight Core Industries' reading for last month showed an expansion of over 56 per cent from (-) 37.9 per cent dip in output during the same month of last year.

On a sequential basis, the output of eight major industries had risen by 11.4 per cent in March 2021.

The pandemic-triggered national lockdown (from late March 2020) during Q1FY21 had a massive impact on the economy, which suffered a GDP contraction of 24.4 per cent. It was only on June 1, 2020 that the partial unlock measures were implemented.

However, in April 2021, localised lockdowns were again implemented following a surge of cases.

The ECI index comprises 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). These industries comprise coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity.