Gutka, calculators, TV picture tubes removed from new IIP

New Delhi: Items like gutka, calculators and coloured TV picture tubes have been removed from the new series of Index of Industrial Production with 2011-12 as base year, while steroids and refined palm oil are among those that have found place in it.

The total number of items in the index has increased to 809 as compared to 620 earlier.

The changes effected by the government in the product basket are aimed at capturing the economic data in a more comprehensive manner.

The 149 new items include steroids and hormonal preparations, cement clinkers, medical/surgical accessories, pre-fabricated concrete blocks and refined palm oil.

On the other hand, 124 items such as biaxially oriented polypropylene films, calculators, colour TV picture tubes, gutka have been deleted from the 2004-05 series.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, revises the base year of the macroeconomic indicators as a regular exercise to capture structural changes in the economy and improve the quality and representativeness of the indices.

The revised series uses the National Industrial Classification (NIC) 2008 for the purpose of classification of industrial production.

The ministry also said in a statement that in order to reflect the increasing significance of electricity generation from renewable sources, it has been decided to include the data in the new series.

Further, it added that the number of source agencies reporting data for compilation of IIP in the new series will be 14 as compared to 15 earlier.

The objective of the revision is to update the item basket and reporting entities and to "bring the coverage more in line with the current consumption and production patterns", Chief statistician TCA Anant told reporters here.

He said certain items which were in the old series are present in the new series as well, but are appropriately reclassified either by splitting up old items or combining them.

"An effort has been made to broad-base data collection to ensure that we get data from much larger establishments," he added.

He also said that with the release of the new series of IIP (base 2011-12), an institutional mechanism has been established for facilitating dynamic revision of the item list of products and the panel of factories, through a Technical Review Committee, chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Statistics.

The committee will meet at least once a year for identifying new items that need to be included in the item basket and removing those that have lost relevance in the industrial sector or are no longer being produced.