As per Central Statistics Office (CSO) provisional data, the share of services sector to Gross Value Added (GVA) was 53.2 per cent in 2015-16 whereas the share of Industry sector was 29.7 per cent.

In order to promote trade in services, Government of India follows a multi-pronged strategy of negotiating meaningful market access through multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral trade agreements, trade promotion through participation in international fairs/exhibitions, focussed strategies for specific markets and sectors. Further, there, are domestic sectoral challenges and difficulties. These are identified and sought to be addressed through consultations with stakeholders. Government of India also provides some fiscal benefits through Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS) for some identified sectors as per budget availability.

Services are embedded in manufacturing. Some important services which are also inputs into the manufacturing sector are: IT/TeS, logistic services which comprises courier services, retail including e-commerce and transport services, financial services (insurance and banking), utilities such as telecommunications and professional services (engineering services, architectural services, accounting and legal services). Therefore, these key service sectors are critical for the success of the ‘Make in India’ Programme. The ‘Make in India’ programme has identified twenty-five thrust areas from both manufacturing and services sectors to provide major push to both these sectors. Apart from this, the policy initiatives like Start-up India, Stand-up India, Digital India and Skill India, fillip to manufacturing and infrastructure through fiscal incentives and concrete measures for transport, power, connectivity, smart cities and other urban and rural infrastructure and efforts at improving the ease of doing business through a number of facilitatory initiatives are also likely to boost services sector. The substantive changes in the policy regime for foreign direct investment are expected to boost both industrial and service sector growth.

This information was given by the Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

Promotion of trade in services: government uses market access, fiscal incentives and reforms to boost services contribution to GDP. Government strategy to raise the services share of value-added combines negotiations for market access, trade promotion, stakeholder consultations and budgeted fiscal support under the Services Exports from India Scheme (SEIS). Services identified as inputs to manufacturing-IT/TeS, logistics, retail/e-commerce, transport, financial services, utilities and professional services-are linked to industrial initiatives like Make in India. Complementary policies (Start-up India, Digital India, Skill India), infrastructure incentives and ease-of-doing-business reforms, alongside liberalised foreign direct investment policy, are presented as measures expected to boost both services and industrial growth.