ECONOMY
India’s first services index launched, reflecting robust growth of food services, trade
- IBJ Bureau
- Jul 15, 2026
The government has introduced the Index of Services Production (ISP), India’s first, high-frequency, macroeconomic indicator, designed to measure the performance of the country’s services sector.
The first trial ISP for April 2026 covers 19 service sub-sectors, which account for nearly 60 per cent of India’s services economy.
The services index, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), has taken 2024-25 as the base year to calculate the performance of the ISP.
The ISP will track short-term changes in the volume of output produced by the formal services sector relative to the base year of FY25.
The new index is expected to strengthen economic monitoring, improve national accounts estimation and support evidence-based policymaking.
The trial data shows that 14 of the 19 sub-sectors have recorded double-digit, year-on-year growth in April 2026 compared with the data for the same month last year.
Among the fastest-growing segments are accommodation and food services (37.2%), retail trade (30.8%), administrative and support services (28.7%), real estate (27.7%) and telecommunications (22.8%).
For the full financial year of 2025-26, the strongest-performing sub-sectors include accommodation and food services (35.6%), retail trade (30.5%), repair services (25.1%), wholesale trade (23.6%) and road transport (22.6%).
Introduction of the ISP fills a long-standing gap in India’s economic measurement framework.
The new index captures short-term trends in the services sector, which is not reflected in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which only captures industrial activity.
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