India's manufacturing sector witnessed a sharp year-on-year decline in the January-March quarter of 2017, provisional GDP figures released by the government Wednesday showed.

The manufacturing sector growth stood at 5.3 percent, down sharply from 12.7 percent growth reported in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

For the full year as well, manufacturing, like several other industry components reported dismal numbers.

Manufacturing growth in the previous financial year slowed down to 7.9 percent as against 10.8 percent in 2015-16.

Meanwhile, a monthly survey showed Thursday that manufacturing sector growth in the country moderated to a three-month low in May amid softer rise in new orders and production.

The Nikkei Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) -- an indicator of manufacturing activity -- fell from 52.5 in April to a three-month low of 51.6 in May.

Earlier this week, commerce & industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that a manufacturing policy would soon be overhauled with the objective of creating more jobs in an environment where technology is rapidly replacing labour.

The new manufacturing policy will be rolled out in September to coincide with the third anniversary of Make in India and will aim to take the share of manufacturing to a fourth of GDP from the current level of 16-17 percent, the minister added.