8 core industries index to become 9 as government adds iron ore

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 17, 2026 06:18 PM IST

“In view of the extensive use of iron ore in industrial production and its significant contribution to industrial development, Iron Ore has been included as a core industry in the revised ICI series." (File Photo)

The commerce ministry will release the updated Index of Core Industries (ICI) next week, with the number of core industries set to increase to nine following the inclusion of iron ore to the existing eight: coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity.

“In view of the extensive use of iron ore in industrial production and its significant contribution to industrial development, Iron Ore has been included as a core industry in the revised ICI series. Consequently, the number of core industries has increased from eight to nine,” the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement on Friday.

As per the latest data, core sector growth in May was at a seven-month low of 0.5%. In 2025-26, core sector growth was 2.7%, down from 4.5% in 2024-25.

The revised core sector data – which will be released on Monday for the month of June along with a back-series starting April 2023 – continues the government’s overhaul of India’s official statistics in a hectic year for the country’s statisticians.

In February, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the revised and updated data series for GDP and the Consumer Price Index, followed by the new Index of Industrial Production (IIP) series in May. Then, in June, the commerce ministry made public the new Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data series along with the inaugural Output Producer Price Index (PPI). The input PPI and an Index of Services Production (ISP) – the services sector counterpart to the IIP – have also been released on a trial basis.

The core sector data is a crucial input into the calculation of the IIP and accounts for around 40% of it.

The updated core sector industries data will have 2022-23 as the base year as against 2011-12 in the old one. The addition of iron ore as the ninth sector will lead to the redistribution of the weights of the other eight sectors on a pro-rata basis and are derived from the weights of the IIP 2022–23 series.

Story continues below this ad

“To ensure consistency with the IIP, the revised ICI series uses gross production data for compiling the Steel Index, replacing the net production data used in the ICI (2011–12) series,” the commerce ministry added.

Further, the data for coal now includes only ‘raw coal’, with coal middlings and washed coal excluded to eliminate double counting. Both coal middlings and washed coal are derived from raw coal.

Coal middlings are a by-product generated during coal washing and are used in the power, cement, steel, and chemical industries, among others.

Siddharth Upasani is a Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. He reports primarily on data and the economy, looking for trends and changes in the former which paint a picture of the latter. Before The Indian Express, he worked at Moneycontrol and financial newswire Informist (previously called Cogencis). Outside of work, sports, fantasy football, and graphic novels keep him busy.

... Read More