The index of industrial production fell to 126.6 in April from 145.5 in March — a decline of 12.9 per cent.

“Whichever way we may look at the IIP data the level of industrial output of April 2021 does not provide an encouraging picture,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist, India Ratings and Research.

He attributed the fall in industrial output to the second wave of the coronavirus, which led to lockdowns in some states.

The government has held back the release of the complete IIP data for April, as was done for the same month last year because of the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

“It may be noted that the nationwide lockdown and other measures implemented to restrict the spread of Covid-19 pandemic from the end of March 2020, had led to a majority of the establishments not operating in April 2020 and consequently, there were many units which reported ‘Nil’ production, affecting comparison of the indices for the months of April 2020 and April 2021,” the NSO said.