The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday announced the launch of quarterly "order books, inventories and capacity utilisation" survey of companies in the manufacturing sector -- a key input it uses to formulate the monetary policy.
The RBI has been conducting the order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey (OBICUS) of the manufacturing sector on a quarterly basis since 2008.
The information collected in the survey includes quantitative data on new orders received during the reference quarter (April-June 2024), backlog of orders at the beginning of the quarter, pending orders at the end of the quarter, total inventories with a breakup between ?nished goods, work-in-progress and raw material inventories at the end of the quarter.
Item-wise production in terms of quantity and value during the quarter vis--vis the installed capacity from the targeted group and the reasons for changes in production/installed capacity during the quarter is also collected.
The level of capac
