New Delhi, May 8 -- India's statistics ministry recently proposed an Index of Services Production (ISP), the need for which may seem self-evident, given how this sector's prominence has grown.

"The service sector is the dominant force in the Indian economy, contributing over 50% of the Gross Value Added [GVA]," as a discussion paper on the idea released by the ministry notes, "It has long been central to economic transformation, consistently driving growth, generating employment, and attracting investment across decades."

That's the good part of our services story.

The not-so-good part is the absence of accurate, disaggregated and timely data on the services sector along the lines of India's monthly Index of Industrial Production (IIP)...