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14 of the 19 sub-sectors in the trial and inaugural release of the government’s new Index of Services Production (ISP) witnessed double-digit growth in April 2026, with the best-performing sectors including accommodation and food, retail trade, administrative and support services, and real estate.
The 19 sub-sectors measured account for about 60% of India’s services sector.
The ISP is meant to be the services sector counterpart to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). While the IIP is released on the 28th of every month unless it is a weekend or holiday, the ISP will be released on the 29th henceforth.
“The ISP represents an important milestone in strengthening India’s statistical system and improving the measurement of the services sector, which accounts for more than half of the country’s economic activity,” the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said in a release.
“The release of sub-sectoral ISPs will provide, for the first time, a monthly measure of short-term movements in India’s formal services sector, with a coverage of about 60%,” it added.
While the inaugural release does not provide a composite growth rate for the entire index, this growth rate can be calculated using the sector-wise growth rates and weightages, DK Srivastava, chief policy advisor at EY India, said.
“Considering the year-on-year growth in April 2026 over that in April 2025, the 19-services sector growth is at 20.8%,” Mr. Srivastava said.
The top sub-sectors that reported strong growth in April 2026 were accommodation and food (37.2%), retail trade (30.8%), administrative & support services (28.7%), and real estate (27.7%).
The base year of the trial ISPs has been set as 2024-25, and the index sources its data from several areas, including administrative data, Goods and Services Tax data, and the Annual Survey of Incorporated Services Sector Enterprises (ASISSE) data.
“The production of ISP by the MoSPI is a welcome development, providing high-frequency information regarding the most vibrant sector of the economy, namely the services sector, with adequate details about 19 sub-service sectors,” Mr. Srivastava said.
“While the coverage is so far about 60% of the total services sector, it is expected that the coverage will progressively increase,” he added.
Published – July 14, 2026 07:01 pm IST
