Top Five Service Sectors in India – An Overview

Service sector, also known as the tertiary sector of an economy, found its share of success lately in the Indian economy. Primary sector, consisting of the agricultural productions, remained dominant from the country’s independence in 1947 till the 1980s. GDP for the secondary sector, consisting of industries, and service sector increased with the adoption of the New Economic Policy in 1991.

That being said, it is important to discuss the top service sectors of the Indian economy. Travel and tourism service sector is among the top 5 service sectors that have shown uniform growth trends. India is blessed with a variety of natural attractions, including mountains, beaches, forests, deserts and wildlife species. Besides, the country inherits attractive architectural and historical marvels that have been continuously attracting tourists from across the world.

The travel and tourism industry of the country is further supported by the presence of luxury accommodations, improving transportation and hospitable nature of the people. Medical tourism, ayurveda tourism and adventure tourism too account for travel and tourism as a rising Indian service sector.

Logistics and transportation service sector is the second popular tertiary sector of the Indian economy. The infrastructures in the form of roads, rails and air travel have improved dramatically in the past many years. Rise in international import and export have encourages a number of logistics and shipping companies providing shipping services to appear on the scene. A great improvement has been felt in the efficiency with which these services are offered.

Communication sector of India is one good example of how the Indian service sectors have rapidly grown in the bygone decade. Mobile communication entered the scene like a revolution, thanks to the big national and international service providers taking interest in this direction. The increase in the use of internet too has extended the scope of communication service sector in the country.

Financial services sector is also counted among the top 5 service sectors of the country for all good reasons. Banking and insurance are the two strong pillars of the success that this sector has recorded in the past two decades. Finally, it is the information technology services sector that takes the position among the most contributing Indian service sectors. The outsourcing revolution helped the country to gain success in the fields like BPO, software designing and web designing, apart from many others.

If statistics are to be believed, the GDP for agricultural sector declined from 55.53% in the mid of the 20th century to 28.66% in 1990s. At the same time, the GDP for service sector increased from around 28% to around 44% over the same course of time. The last decade has added a number of categories to the Indian service sector, thereby further adding to the sector’s contribution towards GDP.