The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday released India's first trial Index of Services Production (ISP), providing a monthly measure of activity across 19 formal services sub-sectors that together account for about 60% of the country's services economy. The ministry said the overall ISP will be introduced later after improving coverage and assessing the stability of the trial series.
The inaugural release, with 2024-25 as the base year, showed that 14 of the 19 sub-sectors recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in April 2026. Though the data released on Tuesday does not give an aggregate services sector growth number, it provided performance on a sub-sector basis. The strongest performers were accommodation and food services (37.2%), retail trade (30.8%), administrative and support services (28.7%) and real estate (27.7%). Telecommunications expanded 22.8%, while banking grew 12.2%.
Eight sectors dominate the index, together accounting for 86.8% of the total weight in the trial index. Wholesale and retail trade together account for 23% of the ISP basket, followed information and banking related services (22.5%), Administrative and support services (15%), banking (11%), Road and transport (7.68%), accommodation and food services (4.27%) and telecommunication (3.24%).
Among the sectors, air transport contracted 13.9%, while railway transport declined marginally by 0.4%. Nearly all other sectors registered positive growth during the month.
The ministry said the ISP marks a significant step in strengthening India's statistical framework by providing a high-frequency indicator for the services sector, which contributes more than half of the country's economic activity. The sub-sectoral indices will be released on the 29th of every month, while the overall services index will be introduced after expanding coverage beyond the current 60%.
Commenting on the data, DK Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor, EY India, said the weighted growth of the 19 services sub-sectors works out to 20.8% year-on-year in April 2026, reflecting broad-based strength in the formal services economy.
"The key drivers of this impressive growth are retail trade, accommodation and food services, telecommunications and administrative and support services. Among the major sectors, banking recorded the lowest growth at 12.1%, while air transport was the only segment to witness a contraction, partly reflecting the impact of the West Asian crisis," he said.
Srivastava welcomed the launch of the ISP, saying it fills an important gap by providing high-frequency data on India's most dynamic sector. He added that while the current coverage is about 60% of the services economy, it is expected to expand progressively, making the index an increasingly comprehensive indicator of services sector activity.