The Office of the Economic Adviser (OEA) under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) on Monday released the revised Index of Core Industries (ICI) with 2022-23 as the new base year, replacing the existing 2011-12 series. Along with the launch of the new series, the government also released the provisional Index of Core Industries for June 2026, which recorded a 5 per cent year-on-year growth, marking an improvement over the 3.2 per cent growth recorded in May 2026.
The revised index introduces several methodological changes aimed at better reflecting the current structure of India’s industrial economy. One of the most significant changes is the inclusion of Iron Ore as a core industry, increasing the number of core sectors covered under the index from eight to nine. The government said Iron Ore has been added owing to its extensive use in industrial production and its contribution to overall industrial development.
The new series also aligns the methodology for calculating the Steel index with the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) by using gross production data instead of net production data. In another revision, only Raw Coal has been retained in the Coal category, while Coal Middling and Washed Coal have been excluded to eliminate double counting, as both are derived from raw coal.
The weights assigned to the core industries have been derived from the corresponding weights in the revised IIP (2022-23) series and proportionately adjusted to total 100. The OEA has also calculated a linking factor of 1.47 between the old and new overall ICI series to facilitate comparison between the two datasets.
According to the provisional estimates, the overall Index of Core Industries expanded by 5 per cent in June 2026 compared with the same month last year, driven primarily by robust growth in Iron Ore, Electricity, Cement, Steel and Coal.
Iron Ore registered the highest annual growth of 43.9 per cent, followed by Electricity and Cement, both of which grew by 9.8 per cent. Steel production increased by 4.6 per cent, while Coal recorded a 1.4 per cent rise during the month.
In contrast, Natural Gas, Crude Oil, Refinery Products and Fertilizers posted negative year-on-year growth in June.
The Commerce & Industry Ministry said Iron Ore and Electricity have emerged as the principal contributors to overall core sector growth in recent months.
For the first quarter of the current financial year, the cumulative growth of the Index of Core Industries during April-June 2026 stood at 3.6 per cent, compared with 1 per cent growth recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year, indicating stronger momentum in India’s core industrial sectors.
The revised ICI series is being released with retrospective data from April 2023 onwards, enabling users to analyse historical trends under the updated methodology. The Office of the Economic Adviser has also announced that the earlier 2011-12 base year series will be discontinued.
Going forward, the provisional Index of Core Industries will continue to be released on the 20th of every month, or the next working day if the 20th falls on a holiday. The next release, covering July 2026, is scheduled for August 20, 2026.
