The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) announced on Wednesday that India will begin releasing a monthly Index of Services Production (ISP) from July 2026. According to reports from Business Standard, the ISP will serve as the services-sector counterpart of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), providing a high-frequency indicator to track output in India's services sector. The first trial monthly indices, with 2024-25 as the base year, will be released on July 14, including monthly indices for 2025-26 and April 2026. The ministry has also released a detailed FAQ booklet to assist users in understanding the new statistical framework.
The ISP will initially cover formal services sector activities such as wholesale and retail trade, transport, banking, insurance, telecommunications, hotels and restaurants, real estate, professional, scientific and technical services, and arts, entertainment and recreation. As reported by Business Standard, health and education services are expected to be added at a later stage once more data becomes available. The ministry stated that the ISP will rely on three main data sources: administrative data for sectors such as air transport, railways, banking and insurance; GST data for a wide range of service activities including wholesale and retail trade, hospitality, road and water transport, warehousing, telecommunications, real estate, information technology services, professional services, and entertainment; and ASISSE data for health and education services. The trial indices will be compiled using a fixed-weight Laspeyres volume index, with weights drawn from sectoral shares in GVA as published in the National Accounts Statistics (NAS).
According to the ministry, the services sector has accounted for over 50% of India's GDP since 2013-14, but the country did not have a comparable short-term index to track movements in the sector on the lines of the IIP for industry. As reported by Business Standard, for years, India relied on indicators such as services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), GST collections, sector-specific data, and quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates to gauge the performance of the services sector. However, these measures offered only partial insights, as there was no equivalent indicator for services while the IIP provided a monthly snapshot of industrial activity. The ISP is expected to bridge this gap by providing a regular and structured measure of service sector production, becoming an important tool for national accounts compilation, government ministries and departments, economists, and researchers.
After the initial trial release, the ministry plans to put out the monthly trial indices with a lag of about 60 days, on the 29th of every month or the next working day if it falls on a holiday. According to Business Standard, since GST data is being used for the first time in such a statistical application and some data sources are still evolving, the government will release trial or experimental indices for some time before moving to regular compilation and dissemination. A technical advisory committee headed by Debjani Ghosh, distinguished fellow at NITI Aayog, was set up in May 2025 to help finalise the conceptual and methodological framework for the index, with its full report scheduled for release in the first fortnight of July. The ministry noted that nine sub-sectors remain outside ISP's coverage, including financial services excluding banking and insurance, public administration and defence, social work activities without accommodation, services of membership organisations, personal services, activities of private households with employed persons, activities of extraterritorial organisations, health and education services provided by government, and gambling and betting.
The ISP will provide economic trends that would complement an IIP on the short-term movement of an economy, as stated in the official FAQ. The ministry emphasized that high frequency information on the performance of the services sector to strengthen the existing statistical framework is another key objective, supporting analytical and policy frameworks. The ISP will also serve as a high-frequency indicator of services sector growth and provide time series data to enable better economic forecasting and business cycle analysis. According to the official statement, the index will provide timely information on the performance of services industries, thereby, strengthening monitoring of economic activity and supporting evidence-based policy decisions. The ISP is expected to offer several benefits including better economic monitoring, improved policy decisions, stronger economic analysis, and filling a long-standing data gap in India's economic dashboard.
