India's manufacturing activities expanded last month at the slowest pace in eight months, shows the HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI).

The index fell sharply to 52.9 points in July against 55 points in June. Before that, PMI was lower in November 2011, when it was at 51 points. A reading above 50 points denotes expansion and below that level is contraction. One reason given for low PMI is power outages faced by the manufacturing sector (though their national grid collapses of this week weren’t taken into account).