The first experimental ISP, with 2024-25 as the base year, has been released for April 2026. It covers 19 services sub-sectors and captures around 60% of India’s formal services sector.
What is the Index of Services Production (ISP)?
According to MoSPI, the ISP is a short-term indicator of changes in the volume of output produced by the services sector relative to a base year. Like the IIP, it is designed to provide a monthly measure of production, but for services instead of industry.
The index has been developed under the guidance of the Technical Advisory Committee on Index of Services Production (TAC-ISP), constituted in May 2025, with members from academia, industry associations and government ministries.
Why has India introduced the ISP?
According to MoSPI, the services sector accounts for more than half of India’s economic activity. Until now, however, India did not have a monthly indicator to track short-term movements in services output similar to the IIP for manufacturing, mining and electricity.
The ISP seeks to address this gap by providing monthly data on the formal services sector. The ministry said the new index will help strengthen India’s macroeconomic statistical framework by providing a regular measure of services production.
What does the first ISP show?
The first experimental ISP, released for April 2026, shows broad-based growth across the services sector.According to MoSPI, the first experimental ISP points to broad-based growth across the services sector in April 2026. As many as 14 of the 19 sub-sectors recorded double-digit year-on-year growth, while nearly all categories registered positive growth.
Accommodation and food services led the expansion with a 37.2% increase over April 2025, followed by retail trade (30.8%), administrative and support services (28.7%), real estate (27.7%), telecommunications (22.8%), repair services (19.2%), road transport (18.5%), and warehousing and support activities (18.2%).
Among the few sectors to record a decline were air transport, which contracted 13.9%, and railway transport, which slipped 0.4% year-on-year.
Which sectors does the ISP cover?
The current trial series of the ISP covers 19 sub-sectors across the formal services economy. These include wholesale and retail trade; repair services; accommodation and food services; railway, road, water and air transport; warehousing and support activities for transportation; postal and courier services; telecommunications; information and broadcasting; banking and insurance; real estate; IT and computer-related services; professional, scientific and technical services; administrative and support services; and arts, entertainment and recreation, according to MoSPI.
Which sectors are not included?
According to MoSPI, the ISP currently covers formal sector enterprises only, based on the availability of GST and administrative data.
The index excludes services that are largely government-run, non-market activities or dominated by the informal sector, including public administration, defence and certain public services.
How is the ISP compiled?
MoSPI uses different data sources depending on the sector.
The three principal data sources are:
- Administrative data for sectors such as Air Transport, Railway Transport, Water Transport (freight), Banking and Insurance.
- GST data for sectors including Wholesale and Retail Trade, Accommodation & Food, Road Transport, Telecommunications, Real Estate, IT Services, Professional Services and Administrative Services.
- Annual Survey of Incorporated Services Sector Enterprises (ASISSE) for deriving sectoral weights.
How is inflation adjusted?
Since GST data captures turnover in current prices, MoSPI adjusts these figures using sector-specific price indices to estimate real output.
The ministry uses:
- Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for Wholesale Trade.
- Consumer Price Index (CPI) for several service sectors.
- CPI-General for Banking, Insurance and Repair Services.
- CPI-Services where sector-specific price indices are unavailable.
Why is the ISP being released as a trial series?
The monthly ISP is currently being published on an experimental basis, according to MoSPI.
The ministry said the trial series will help assess data quality, test the robustness of the methodology and incorporate feedback from users before the index is finalised.
It also noted that the indices for Railways, Banking and Insurance are based on provisional monthly data and will undergo annual revisions.
How is the ISP different from the IIP?
The ISP and IIP measure different parts of the economy.
- IIP tracks production in mining, manufacturing and electricity.
- ISP tracks production across 19 formal services sub-sectors.
Together, the two indices provide monthly indicators for both industry and a significant part of the services sector.
Why does the ISP matter?
According to MoSPI, the ISP expands India’s suite of macroeconomic indicators by introducing a monthly measure of services production.
The current trial series covers around 60% of the formal services sector, making it the first regular high-frequency indicator for a large segment of India’s services economy. The ministry said the index will be published every month on an experimental basis while its methodology and data quality continue to be evaluated.