India Inc. order inflow rebounds in Q1 FY26 to ₹1.5 lakh crore, up 80% from last year

After a slow start in April, India Inc.’s new order inflows rebounded sharply in May and June, pointing to early signs of revival in industrial activity and project rollout. According to data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), total new orders in the June 2025 quarter stood at ₹1.67 lakh crore, up 80% year-on-year from ₹92,700 crore in Q1 FY25.

However, while the recovery is evident on a YoY basis, Q1 FY26 still lagged the December 2024 and September 2024 quarters which saw ₹1.9 lakh crore and ₹1.8 lakh crore worth of new orders, respectively.

The drag was largely due to a sharp drop in April 2025, when fresh orders plummeted to just ₹251 billion—a 40% decline year-on-year and a steep fall from the ₹1.34 lakh crore recorded in March. While May brought a dramatic turnaround with ₹73,900 crore worth of orders—up 228% YoY—June sustained the momentum with ₹68,000 crore, registering 140% YoY growth.

According to Harshit Kapadia, analyst at Elara Securities, major capital goods companies, excluding L&T, have announced cumulative orders worth of ₹27,600 crore in Q1FY26, up 18% YoY (excluding large HVDC order for Bhadla-Fatehpur won by BHEL-Hitachi. Defence firms inflows grew 15% YoY to ₹7800 crore, while CG inflows rose 19% YoY to ₹198 billion. Orders were led by power generation, transmission & distribution, defence, and engineering procurement & construction.

Among notable wins in June 2025, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) bagged the largest single order worth ₹6500 crore from Adani Power . The order includes the supply of steam turbine generators and associated auxiliary equipment including cooling and control systems.

Polycab India followed closely, securing ₹6447 crore in orders through an agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. The company will act as the Project Implementation Agency for BharatNet’s middle-mile network across Karnataka, Goa, and Puducherry.

KNR Constructions notched up ₹4805 crore in new orders, primarily driven by a five-year operational contract for the Banhardih coal mining block in Jharkhand, which holds an estimated 34.5 million tonnes of reserves.

Meanwhile, Kalpataru Projects International Ltd (KPIL) reported ₹4778 crore in fresh orders. This included its largest-ever project in the Buildings and Factories segment, worth ₹3700 crore, for the construction of over 12 million square feet of residential space. KPIL also secured sizable overseas orders in the transmission and distribution space, further cementing its global presence.

While the overall Q1 FY26 figures point to a sequential cooling off from the previous quarter, the strong rebound in May and June suggests that April’s weakness may have been transient. The pick-up in project awards, especially from private sector players like Adani Power and public sector schemes such as BharatNet, indicates continued appetite for infrastructure and industrial investments.

The key question now is whether this momentum will carry forward into Q2, especially amid expectations of increased public spending and faster execution of delayed capex projects.