Indian industry grew by 8.3% in January 2006 when compared with 7.5% in January 2005 due to the surge in the manufacturing sector, which grew by 9.2% in January 2006 as against 8.6% last year.The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) between April-January 2005-06 was up 8% as against 8.4% during the same period last fiscal."The consistent growth in the manufacturing sector shows that the slight dip in the sector in November and December was a temporary phase," D K Joshi, senior economist of CRISIL, said.The manufacturing sector clocked a growth of 9% during the first 10 months of the current fiscal, which was lower than the growth rate of 9.2% during the same period last of the last fiscal.Investment scenario also remains positive with the capital goods segment growing by 16.8% between April-January 2005-06 when compared with 13.1%during the year-ago period."The investment climate remains healthy with both the capital goods segment and machinery and investment growing at a healthy rate," Joshi added.The demand for capital goods grew by a whopping 26.3% in January 2006 when compared with just 8% in January 2005. Core sectors like electricity, mining and crude petroleum, however, continue to show poor growth.
