The manufacturing sector registered a growth of 6.5 per cent in November 2000 against a low growth of 3.7 per cent in the same month in the previous year.

The electricity sector also recovered during the month and posted a growth of 7.8 per cent against a growth of 8.5 per cent in October 1999. The mining sector grew by 4.8 per cent against 0.1 per cent in October 1999.

In the April-November period of the current fiscal, total industrial production grew by 6 per cent as against a 6.2 per cent growth registered in the same period the previous year.

The manufacturing sector, with over two-thirds weightage in the IIP, grew at 6.3 per cent in the first eight months compared to 6.6 per cent growth posted in the corresponding period last year.

The electricity sector also registered a lower growth rate of 4.9 per cent during April-November 2000 compared to 8.2 per cent last year.

The mining sector posted a growth rate of 4.1 per cent in the period against a 0.5 per cent growth registered in the last fiscal.

In the use-based category, the basic goods sector continued its upward movement by registering a growth of 5.9 per cent in October 2000 against 4.3 per cent in October 1999. In the April-November period, the sector grew by 5.3 per cent as against a similar growth rate last year.

The intermediate goods sector grew by 4.6 per cent in the month against a negative growth of 0.4 per cent in the same month last year. The sector registered a growth of 4.8 per cent in the April-November period against an 8.6 per cent growth in the same period last fiscal.

The performance of the capital goods sector was, however, disappointing. The sector registered a negative growth of 0.1 per cent in the month against a high of 9 per cent in November 1999. In the April-November period, the growth rate was higher at 3.7 per cent against an 8.2 per cent growth in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The consumer goods sector registered an 11.4 per cent growth in the month against 6.1 per cent last year. While consumer durables grew by 19.6 per cent, the growth in non-durables was slower at 8.8 per cent. In the eight-month period, the consumer goods sector registered a growth of 8.8 per cent against a 4.3 per cent growth in the last fiscal.

While the consumer durables sector grew by 19.6 per cent against 6 per cent during the comparable eight month period, the consumer non-durable sector grew by 5.3 per cent against a growth rate of 1.6 per cent last year.

Four items, including radio receivers, photosensitised paper, and chassis for HCVs and engines have been excluded from the item basket for the manufacturing sector as the items are "prone to significant month to month variations". The weights have been re-distributed amongst the remaining items of the respective groups from April 1998 onwards.

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), which calculates the IIP, has observed that the deletion of the items had a negligible impact on the indices and growth rates for the years 1994-95 to 1995-98.

The monthly indices of the mining sector have also been revised by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) from April 1994 onwards by incorporating the production of natural gas by the private sector and joint venture companies and the internal utilisation of a part of natural gas production by the public sector. There has been a marginal change in the weights attached to the basic, capital and intermediate goods sector. While there has been a small increase in the weights attached to basic goods and intermediate goods from 355.12 to 355.65 and from 264.39 to 265.14 respectively, the weight attached to the capital goods sector has come down from 96.87 to 92.87.