Total industrial production, which also includes mining and utility output, rose 0.9% during the month and the gain in February was revised up.
Manufacturing output rose 2.9 percent from a year earlier in April, the largest increase since August 2014, data from the Singapore Economic Development Board showed on Thursday. The median forecast in a Reuters survey was a contraction of 0.3 percent.
Manufacturing output fell 0.5 percent from a year earlier in January, data from the Singapore Economic Development Board showed. The median forecast in a Reuters survey was for a decline of 4.8 percent.
"This year we are targeting about 7.5 percent to 8 percent growth. We are quite confident that upwards of 7.5 percent is what we can reasonably expect," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said at an ICRIER event here.
The production of capital goods, a barometer of demand, however, grew at a slower pace of 11.1 percent in April as against 13.4 percent in the same month last year. In April this year, mining sector too grew at a slower rate.
Indian shares are likely to continue bounce from near 6-1/2 month closing lows. Nifty expected to trade between 8,000 and 8,400 in coming week.
The HSBC Emerging Markets Index (EMI), a monthly indicator derived from Purchasing Managers' Index surveys, fell to 51.3 in April, from 51.5 in March, registering the weakest rate of expansion since January.
The afterglow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election victory in May helped India's lumbering economy register its fastest growth in two-and-a-half years for the quarter ending in June.
In April, the World Bank had projected India's GDP would grow at 6.1 percent in the current financial year and at 6.7 per cent the following year. The World Bank today slashed India's economic growth forecast for the current financial year to 4.7 percent.
Barclays lowered India's FY14 GDP forecast for FY14 to 4.7 percent. It said that the broader trend remains sluggish and that growth and fiscal health of the country are likely to be stressed.
The overall HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which gauges business activity in Indian factories but not its utilities, sank to 50.1 in May from 51.0 in April, and was the third straight monthly fall.
India's industrial production grew at a higher-than-expected pace of 2.4% in May driven by manufacturing output, government data showed on Thursday.
India's industrial output rose a much slower-than expected 4.1% in February from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday.
India's industrial output rose a much slower-than expected 4.1% in February from a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday.
US industrial output for November declined for the first time in seven months as manufacturing activity slumped, countering recent signs of improvement in the economy.
India's industrial output contracted 5.1% in October from a year earlier, government data showed on Monday, much sharper than a median forecast in a Reuters poll for 0.5% fall.
September factory activity in some of Asia's biggest economies slumped to levels last seen during the depths of the financial crisis as export demand dropped, reinforcing fears that fading US and European growth will spare no one.
India's industrial output in April rose 6.3% from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday.
India's annual industrial output in December rose at its slowest pace in 20 months on a higher base last year and stretched capacities at factories, but the Reserve Bank will likely continue tightening monetary policy to tame high headline inflation.
India's industrial output in November rose a slower-than-expected 2.7% from a year earlier, well below the previous month's revised annual growth of 11.3%, government data showed on Wednesday.