The Reserve Bank of India has launched the 40th round of its Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS). The survey is for the reference period October-December 2017 (Q3:2017-18).

The Reserve Bank has been conducting Order Books, Inventories and Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) of the manufacturing sector on a quarterly basis. The survey seeks quantitative information on order books, inventories and capacity utilisation, such as, pending order books, backlog order books, total inventories, finished goods inventories, work in progress inventories, installed capacity, quantity produced, capacity utilisation, value of production, etc., from companies involved in the manufacturing activities. The information on installed capacity, quantity produced, value of production, etc., is used for calculating the capacity utilisation at industry as well as at an all India level. The survey has been providing a significant input to the Reserve Bank in monetary policy formulation.

A detailed annual article based on the results for the quarters April-June 2015 to January-March 2016 was published in the September 2016 issue of the RBI monthly bulletin. The survey results for the 38th round (Q1:2017-18) were released on the RBI website on October 04, 2017.

The data collection work is undertaken in-house. During this quarter, the major manufacturing companies will be approached by the Bank. Other manufacturing companies that are not approached earlier may also participate in this survey round by downloading the survey questionnaire from the Reserve Bank’s website https://www.rbi.org.in. The survey questionnaire is placed under the head ‘Forms’ (available under the ‘More Links’ at the bottom of the home page) and sub-head ‘Survey’. The duly authenticated filled-in survey schedule may be e-mailed or faxed as per contact details provided in the survey schedule.

In case of any query/clarification, kindly contact at the following address:

The Director, Division of Enterprise Surveys, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Reserve Bank of India, C-8, 2nd floor, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai-400 051, Phone - 022-26578279/386; Fax- 022-26572197; E-mail.

Ajit Prasad
Assistant Adviser

Press Release : 2017-2018/1922