An Analysis of Services Sector in Indian Economy
An Analysis of Services Sector in Indian Economy
An Analysis of Services Sector in Indian Economy
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INTRODUCTION
Service sector also known as tertiary or residual sector is essential for economic growth in any economy including India. It has
emerged as the largest and fastest-growing sector in the global economy in the last two decades. On the basis of this observed
development pattern of countries some economists like Fisher (1939) Clark (1940) Rostov (1960) and Kuznets (1971) have
suggested that development is a three stage process. The dominance of the services sector in the growth process is associated with
the third stage of development. However in India the acceleration in growth in recent years has been due to the dynamism of the
service sector while the contribution of industry has tended to stagnate over the last two decades. Service now contribution almost
59%to India `s GDP and have contribution to more than 60% of Indias growth during the period of the last decade and a half.
Firstly, Fisher classified the economy into primary, secondary and tertiary sector. Later on Kuznets introduced the term services
instead of tertiary, there by bringing the sector into economic discussion (Kuznets, 1972). The objective of this paper is to provide
an overview of the Indian services sector.
A. Growth of service sector in India, its share in GDP and its contribution to GDP growth.
B. Comparative growth of different sub sector of the service sector.
C. Share of service in employment
D. concludes the study with policy implications
II.
The Indian economy has grown at a robust rate during the few years and a striking feature of this growth performance has been the
strength of the service sector. Table first shows that on average service grew slower than industry between 1950 and 1990.growth of
service picked up in the 1980s, and accelerated in the 1990s when it averaged 7.5% per annum,thus providing a valuable prop to
industry and agriculture ,which grew on average by 5.8% and 3.1% respectively. The slowdown in the Ninth plan (1997-2002) was
confined to agriculture and industry with the services registering a remarkable rate of growth of 7.9% per annum.the expansion of
services accelerated further in the years after 2002-03.over the Tenth year plan period (2002-07), services grew at a rate of 9.3% per
annum and Eleventh year plan period (2007-12), services grew at a rate of 9.7% per annum. Table 1 and above discussion clearly
brings out the fact that what the Indian economy has witnessed in recent period is a services led growth.
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1951-80
2.1
5.3
4.5
3.5
1981-90
4.4
6.8
6.6
5.8
1991-2000
3.1
5.8
7.5
5.8
1992-97
4.8
7.3
7.3
6.6
1997-2002
2.5
4.3
7.9
5.5
2002-2007
2.5
9.3
9.3
7.8
2007-2012
3.7
7.2
9.7
7.9
After Indias independence, for more than a decade share of services in the GDP was less than 30%. Table 2 shows that overtime the
share of services in GDP has increased while that of agriculture has declined. In the last decade, the share of services has surpassed
the combined share of agriculture and industry, making it the most important provider to the countrys output. In 2009-10, services,
industries and agriculture correspondingly accounted for 57.3%, 25.7% and 16.9% of Indias GDP.in 2010-11, service, industry and
agriculture correspondingly accounted for 57.7%, 27.8%, and 14.5% of Indias GDP.In 2011-12, service, industry and agriculture
correspondingly accounted for 59%, 27%, and 13.9% of Indias GDP. During the period of economic reforms the share of service
has increased very rapidly.
Table 2: Decadal average of the year on year share of the different sectors in Indias GDP for the period 1950-2010
Sector
Agriculture
Industry
Services
1950/511959/60
55.3
14.8
29.8
1960/611969/70
47.6
19.6
32.8
1970/711979/80
42.8
21.3
35.9
1980/811989/90
37.3
22.3
40.3
1990/912000/01
30.9
23.3
45.7
2000/012009/10
21.8
24.5
53.7
Source: Economic Survey, 2011-12, published by GOI, Authors own calculations from National Income Accounts, CSO, MOSPI.
The calculations are made on GDP at constant prices, constant at 1999-00 and 2004-05
IV.
There are variations in growth and performance of different sub-sectors of services. Business services (including IT),
communications and trade have grown faster than the overall services sector growth in India. Others such as real estate, legal
services, transport, storage and personal administration and defence services have grown-up at the same rate as the overall services
sector growth (see Gordon and Gupta 2003). Existing literature shows that services such as IT, telecommunications and financing
services have contribute to the high growth of the services sector. Hansda (2001) and Joshi (2008) has pointed out that the increase
in the export demand of IT has led to high services growth in India.
Table 3 shows that the share of different subsectors of services in the GDP and services sector has changed overtime. After the
economic reforms of the 1990s, the share of all the services subsectors in GDP has increased. The share of financing, trade and
transport sectors in total services sector has increased while that of community, social and personal services has declined.
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1970/71-1979/80
1980/81-1989/90
1990/91-2000/01 2000/01-2009/10
Share Share
Share Share
Share Share Share Share
In
In
in
in
in
in
in
in
Services GDP
services
GDP
services GDP services
GDP
Community, 35.1
12.6
33.2
13.4
30.3
13.9
26.1
14.0
social &
personal
services
Public
administratio
n & defence
14.3
5.1
15.2
6.1
13.2
6.2
11.2
6.0
Other
services
21.0
7.5
18.0
7.3
16.7
7.6
14.9
8.0
Financing,
insurance,
real estate &
business
services
20.3
7.3
22.0
8.9
26.2
12.0
27.3
14.7
Banking &
insurance
5.9
2.1
7.6
3.1
10.7
4.9
12.0
6.5
Real estate,
ownership of
dwellings &
business
services
Trade, hotels
& restaurant
14.3
5.1
14.5
5.8
15.5
7.1
15.3
8.2
30.2
10.8
29.3
11.8
28.5
13.0
29.4
15.8
Trade
Hotels &
restaurants
28.0
2.1
10.0
0.8
27.3
2.0
11.0
0.8
26.2
2.2
12.0
1.0
26.7
2.6
14.3
1. 4
Transport,
storage &
communicati
on
14.5
5.2
15.5
6.2
15.0
6.9
17.3
9.3
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4.5
1.6
3.9
1.6
2.9
1.3
2.1
1.1
Transport by
other means
8.3
3.0
9.5
3.8
9.6
4.4
9.8
5.3
Storage
0.3
0.1
0.3
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.1
Communicat
ion
1.6
0.6
1.7
0.7
2.3
1.0
5.3
2.8
Source: Authors own calculations from National Income Accounts, CSO, MOSPI.
Note: The calculations are made on GDP at constant prices, constant at 1999-00 and 2004-05.
V.
There has been a lot of debate on employment generating capacity of services sector. It has been argued that employment growth in
services sector has not be commensurate to the income growth in the sector (Bosworth and Maertens, 2010) or the increase in its
share in Indias GDP (Kocher et. al. 2006). The change in the production structure from agriculture to services has not be reflected
by a proportionate change in the occupational structure (Bhattacharya andMitra 1990). As a result, services-led growth has be a
jobless growth (Banga, 2005 and Bhattacharya and Sakthivel 2004).
Over the years, the percentage of people employed in agriculture has declined and employment in services has increased, though the
broad pattern of employment has remained the same with agriculture having the highest share. Table 4 explores that percentage
share of services sector in total employment is increasing since 1972-73. Though the employment percentage in agriculture sector is
highest in comparison of other sectors yet its share is declining continuously. However, the services sector is the second largest
employer after agriculture for Indian population.
Table 4: Sector wise percentage share in employment
Year
1972-73
1977-78
1983-84
1987-88
1993-94
2004-05
2007-08
2009-10
Agriculture
73.9
70.9
68.6
64.9
64.5
57.0
55.9
51.3
Industry
11.3
12.6
13.8
17.0
14.3
18.2
18.7
22.0
Services
14.8
16.5
17.6
18.1
21.2
24.8
25.4
26.7
Source: Economic Survey, 2010-11, published by GOI. Various rounds of NSS data on employment and unemployment
It is clear from the table 5 that community, social & personal services is the primary contributor of employment till 2001. But, in
2004 the percentage share of trade, hotels & restaurants in employment was highest i.e. 39.27 per cent. Except community, social
&personal services, the percentage share of all other subsectors in employment have increased over the period. Consequently,
service sector is gaining primary position in its employment contribution.
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1961
1971
1981
1991
2001
2004
VI.
CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The present paper makes an analysis of Indian services sector through examining its growth and contributions in the economy. The
study confirms that services sector have grown at the significant rate in comparison to other sectors. Its growth rate is found to be
higher than growth of overall GDP. Rising share of this sector in GDP over covers the poor performance of agriculture sector. As a
service sub-sector, trade is dominant all in terms of its contribution in Indian GDP. The employment percentage in service sector as
well as in industry sector is rising while in agriculture, it is falling continuously. A large proportion of Indian population is still
engaged in agriculture sector and the next largest employer is service sector where trade, hotels & restaurants and community, social
& personal services are the significant generator of employment. Thus, service sector which is dominant in terms of its growth &
shares serves as an engine of growth for Indian economy. The paper highlights reform measures that will enable the services sector
to not only to grow at a fast pace but also create quality employment and attract investment. It is important for a developing country
like India with a large and young population to generate quality employment and move up the value chain. India needs private
investments in key infrastructure services such as transport, energy and telecommunications.
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