Industrial production growth slips to 2% from 7% in June
New Delhi, Aug 9: India's industrial production growth slipped to a four-month low of 2 per cent in June, mainly due to poor performance of mining and manufacturing sectors, according to government data released on Friday.
Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had expanded by 7 per cent in June 2018.
The previous low in IIP growth was in February 2019, when it had inched up 0.2 per cent. Thereafter, IIP grew at 2.7 per cent in March, 4.3 per cent in April and 4.6 per cent in May this year.
According to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, industrial output grew at 3.6 per cent in April-June quarter this fiscal, down from 5.1 per cent growth a year ago.
There was a slowdown in the manufacturing sector, which grew at 1.2 per cent in June 2019 as compared to 6.9 per cent a year ago.
Capital goods segment, which is a barometer of investment, saw a contraction of 6.5 per cent in June compared to 9.7 per cent growth a year ago.
Mining growth dropped to 1.6 per cent in June from 6.5 per cent in the corresponding month of the last fiscal.
The expansion in power generation sector stood at 8.2 per cent, compared to 8.5 per cent earlier.
As per use-based classification, primary goods segment grew 0.5 per cent, intermediate goods 12.4 per cent and infrastructure/construction goods (-) 1.8 per cent in June 2019.
Consumer durables and non-durables recorded growth of (-) 5.5 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively.
In terms of industries, 8 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during June as compared to the same month a year ago.
The industry group 'Manufacture of basic metals' showed the highest growth of 17.7 per cent, followed by 16.5 per cent in food products and 10.3 per cent in tobacco products.
On the other hand, the industry group Manufacture of paper and paper products' witnessed the highest negative growth of (-) 19.9 per cent, followed by (-) 14.3 per cent in 'Manufacture of furniture' and (-) 13.9 per cent in 'Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers'.
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Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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