The pace of activities related to the manufacturing sector in India remained sluggish in February compared to the previous month. At the moment, the circumstances overall remain strong. Along with this, manufacturing sector activity declined in February due to slowdown in demand and output. With this, factory-related activities reached an eight-month high in the first month of January this year, while IHS Markit's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) declined to 54.5 in February, from 55.3 in January. 

In the context of PMI, the data increase above 50 whereas the figure below it shows the contraction. Pauliana de Lima, Principal Economist at IHS Markit, said, "India's factories benefited in February due to strong orders from domestic and international markets. The production of companies has increased due to the increase in demand. "According to the recent survey, the sub-index for new orders came to 57.5 in February. With this, it has remained above the long-term average since the index's inception in March 2005. This helped companies in good production.

Demand from other countries in February was weaker than expected in January due to concerns over the spread of Coronavirus to countries outside China. Due to this, the activities related to recruitment reached a three-month low. De Lima said, "The proliferation of COVID-19 has led to apprehensions about the export and supply chain and is a matter of concern for those producing goods in India." On the other hand, business groups seem less confident about the outlook for the future and hence the hiring activities have come to a halt. "On the other hand, the pace of increase in input costs and output costs has been sluggish last month, which shows that That is, retail inflation in February will be soft compared to the previous months.

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