India's economy grew by 6.1 percent in the three months to June, picking up pace from the previous quarter and signalling the country's emergence from the global downturn.
The expansion, spurred by government stimulus packages and aggressive monetary easing that has made loans cheaper, was up from 5.8 percent growth in the March quarter, official data showed Monday.
India's faster growth came as the Asian region as a whole rebounds from the worldwide slump.
Analysts said a robust industrial performance by Asia's third-largest economy should offset the impact of a widespread drought caused by a bad monsoon.
"I don't think the drought will mess up growth prospects too much," Dharmakirti Joshi, economist at credit rating agency Crisil, told AFP.
"While agriculture growth will be hit, other areas will pick up, such as industry," said Joshi, who forecast growth for the year to March 2010 of "close to six percent."
Agriculture grew by 2.4 percent in the June quarter, down from 2.7 percent in the previous quarter. But breakdown of gross domestic product by sector showed industrial output grew by five percent, up from 1.4 percent.
Excluding agriculture, overall GDP rose 6.8 percent on the year compared with 6.4 percent in the previous quarter -- the first improvement since the January-March quarter of 2008.
The figures were in line with analysts' forecasts. The economy grew by 7.8 percent in the same quarter last year.