RBI vide circular dated 12.01.2021 has launched Quarterly Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilization Survey: October-December 2020 (Round 52) for manufacturing sector. The information collected in the survey includes quantitative data on new orders received during the reference quarter, backlog of orders at the beginning of the quarter, pending orders at the end of the quarter, total inventories with a breakup between work-in-progress (WiP) and finished goods (FG) inventories at the end of the quarter and item-wise production in terms of quantity and value during the quarter vis-à-vis the installed capacity from the targeted group.
The level of capacity utilization (CU) is estimated from these responses. The survey provides valuable input for monetary policy formulation.