Expert panel: Release services production index within 60 days

New Delhi: An expert panel recommended compiling sectoral indices monthly and releasing the Index of Services Production (ISP) within 60 days after the reference month.

Earlier, the Statistics Ministry constituted a Technical Advisory Committee on ISP (TAC-ISP) in May 2025 under the Chairpersonship of Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, Niti Aayog.

Apart from representatives from academia and the industry associations, the TAC - ISP has members from the ministries/departments of the services sector.


Over the past year, the committee held extensive deliberations on conceptual, methodological and operational aspects of ISP compilation.

As part of the consultative process, an approach paper on the compilation of the ISP was released in the public domain on April 27, 2026, seeking comments and suggestions from stakeholders.

The report of the TAC-ISP has now been finalised after extensive deliberations and discussions, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said, adding that it provides a comprehensive framework for the compilation of monthly ISP for the formal sector of the economy.

The report, released on Tuesday, presents the deliberations and recommendations of TAC on various conceptual and methodological aspects of ISP compilation, including sectoral coverage, identification of appropriate data sources, selection of price deflators, weighting structure, index compilation methodology and dissemination framework.

The report also documents the rationale for adopting a universal approach, showcasing the dynamism within the sector.

It also recommended a Laspeyres volume index with 2024-25 as the base year, compilation at the 2-digit NIC 2025 level, and aggregation using gross value added (GVA) weights.

The report recommended release of overall, as well as sub-sectoral ISPs initially on a trial basis to gather stakeholder feedback, validate the methodology through the use of other quarterly/annual data sets and study resilience of the indices.

To ensure timely dissemination, the committee suggested monthly compilation of sectoral indices and release of the ISP within 60 days of the reference month while providing a robust, internationally comparable framework for monitoring short-term movements in India's services economy.

The report is intended to help users better understand and assimilate the proposed ISP framework ahead of the release of the (trial) ISP series on July 14, 2026, it stated.

The services sector is the most dynamic and rapidly expanding segment of the Indian economy. It contributes nearly 53 per cent of India's gross value added (GVA), generates substantial employment and has emerged as a key driver of economic growth, investment and exports.

The proposed 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 ISP will complement IIP and provide, for the first time, a comprehensive monthly measure of short-term movements in India's formal sector of the economy.

It stated that although GST provides extensive coverage of market-based services such as trade, accommodation, food services, telecommunications, professional services, real estate and administrative support services, some services, which are exempt from GST, such as Health and Education, a large chunk of railways, individual life & health insurances, non-AC public transport and transport of essential commodities need to be covered through other sources.

For these exempted categories, ISP will draw upon two other sources of information, namely administrative data-sets from railways, aviation, banking and insurance and ASISSE for health and education.

In that sense, ISP will be a unique blend of multiple data sources and methodologies dovetailed to meet the Indian situation.