After a steep decline in March and April 2020, the overall growth rate of production of eight core industries started showing signs of recovery since May 2020.  The sector-wise and month-wise details of growth rate in the eight core industries since November 2019 are at Annex-I.

The production of eight Core industries has been adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated disruptions in demand and supply of goods and services.  Some of the demand side factors responsible for drop in production are decline in private final consumption expenditure and gross fixed capital expenditure, uncertainty in business sentiments, etc. The imposition of nationwide lockdown to contain the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic was a major supply side factor responsible for drop in the core sector growth.

Industrial growth depends on a number of factors including structural, external, fiscal and industrial factors. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has severely impacted some of the major economies of the world, viz. USA, European Union, UK and Japan. In India too, various sectors were affected due to the nation-wide lockdown. However, after the lockdown was relaxed, improvement has been witnessed in several sectors of the economy.

Some of the steps taken by the Government to ensure growth in core sector and to promote domestic industry are as follows:

1. Government is promoting Public Procurement, National Infrastructure Pipeline and Production Linked Incentive Schemes to boost domestic production. Government has also announced Aatmanirbhar Package of ₹ 29.87 lakh crores (15% of GDP) with bold reforms in number of sectors. Announcement of structural reforms such as deregulation of the agricultural sector, change in definition of MSMEs, commercialization of coal mining, higher FDI limits in defence and space sector, development of Industrial Land/ Land Bank and Industrial Information System, revamp of Viability Gap Funding scheme for social infrastructure, new power tariff policy and incentivizing States to undertake sector reforms as part of the Aatmanirbhar Package.

2. Regulatory and compliance measures such as postponing tax-filing and other compliance deadlines, reduction in penalty interest rate for overdue GST filings, change in government procurement rules, faster clearing of MSME dues, IBC related relaxations for MSMEs, amongst others have been taken to boost the industry.

3. To facilitate investment in the country, Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) and Project Development Cells (PDCs) have been set up in Ministries/Departments.

4. To contain surge in imports of non-essential commodities, corrective steps such as increase in basic customs duty or through other non-tariff measures like issue of Quality Control Orders have been taken.   One District One Product Scheme has also been launched to realize the true potential of a district.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shri SomParkash, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

ANNEXURE-I

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) & (b) OF THE  LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 285 FOR ANSWER ON 3^RD FEBRUARY, 2021.

Growth rate (in %) of production of Eight Core Industries (Year on Year basis)

Months/Years	Overall Growth rate	Coal	Crude Oil	Natural Gas	Petroleum Refinery Products	Fertilizers	Steel	Cement	Electricity
Weight (%)		10.33	8.98	6.88	28.04	2.63	17.92	5.37	19.85
Nov-19	0.7	-3.5	-6.0	-6.4	3.1	13.6	7.0	4.3	-4.9
Dec-19	3.1	6.1	-7.4	-9.2	3.0	10.2	8.7	5.5	0.0
Jan-20	2.2	8.0	-5.3	-9.0	1.9	-0.1	1.6	5.1	3.2
Feb-20	6.4	11.3	-6.4	-9.6	7.4	2.9	2.9	7.8	11.5
Mar-20	-8.6	4.0	-5.5	-15.1	-0.5	-11.9	-21.9	-25.1	-8.2
Apr-20	-37.9	-15.5	-6.4	-19.9	-24.2	-4.5	-82.8	-85.2	-22.9
May-20	-21.4	-14.0	-7.1	-16.8	-21.3	7.5	-40.4	-21.4	-14.8
Jun-20	-12.4	-15.5	-6.0	-12.0	-8.9	4.2	-23.2	-6.8	-10.0
Jul-20	-7.6	-5.7	-4.9	-10.2	-13.9	6.9	-6.5	-13.5	-2.4
Aug-20	-6.9	3.6	-6.3	-9.5	-19.1	7.3	0.5	-14.5	-1.8
Sep-20	0.6	21.0	-6.0	-10.6	-9.5	-0.3	6.2	-3.4	4.8
Oct-20*	-0.9	11.7	-6.2	-8.6	-17.0	6.3	4.0	3.2	11.2
Nov-20*	-1.4	3.3	-4.9	-9.3	-4.8	1.6	-0.5	-7.3	3.5
Dec-20*	-1.3	2.2	-3.6	-7.2	-2.8	-2.9	-2.7	-9.7	4.2
2016-17(Apr-Mar)	4.8	3.2	-2.5	-1.0	4.9	0.2	10.7	-1.2	5.8
2017-18(Apr-Mar)	4.3	2.6	-0.9	2.9	4.6	0.03	5.6	6.3	5.3
2018-19(Apr-Mar)	4.4	7.4	-4.1	0.8	3.1	0.3	5.1	13.3	5.2
2019-20(Apr-Mar)	0.4	-0.4	-5.9	-5.6	0.2	2.7	3.4	-0.9	0.9
2020-21(Apr-Dec)*	-10.1	-1.9	-5.7	-11.6	-13.5	3.0	-16.7	-18.3	-3.7

* Provisional

Eight Core Industries includes Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Petroleum Refinery, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement& Electricity.

Regulatory and policy measures bolster core industry recovery after pandemic disruptions, combining incentives, reforms and compliance relief. Production in the Eight Core Industries fell sharply after the nationwide lockdown and began recovering from May 2020; declines are attributed to reduced consumption and investment and lockdown related supply disruptions. The Government responded with demand and supply side measures including Public Procurement support, National Infrastructure Pipeline acceleration, Production Linked Incentives, a comprehensive stimulus with structural reforms (agriculture deregulation, revised MSME definition, coal commercialization, higher FDI in select sectors, industrial land banks, and infrastructure scheme revamps), regulatory reliefs for compliance and tax deadlines, institutional project facilitation, and targeted trade protection measures.