India's factory output falls 0.8 percent in April

New Delhi:  In a rather disappointing start to this fiscal year, India's factory output fell 0.8 per cent in April against a marginal growth of 0.30 percent in the month before, official data showed on Friday.   As per data on Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the fall was mainly on account of a 3.1 percent drop in manufacturing output, which also has the maximum weight in the overall index.   Among the other two major sub-indices, while the one for electricity generation rose a robust 14.6 per cent, that for mining expanded by just 1.4 per cent.   In the past six months, the general index has taken a drop on four occasions, while growing by a mere 2 per cent in February and 0.3 per cent in March. The last robust growth, which had surprised stakeholders, was in October last year, when the general index rose 9.87 per cent.