The country's industrial production witnessed an increase of 13.5% in the month of March, taking the total growth for 2009-10 to 10.4%.

According to reports, the industrial production surged regardless of withdrawal of fiscal stimuli packages and the monetary plan stiffening.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew 0.3% during March 2009 and 2.8% in the whole of 2008-09.

The facts issued by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation indicated that the total production yield increased by 14.35 during the month of March.

During the same period, the total mining output rose 11% and electricity remained up by 7.7%.

The cumulative growth for the last financial year for these three segments stood at 10.9%, 9.7% and 6% respectively.

In a declaration, the ministry stated, "In terms of industries, as many as 14 out of the 17 industry groups have shown positive growth during the month of March 2010, as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year." (With Inputs from Agencies)