India's services sector will prop growth rate

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NEW DELHI, Dec 28 (PTI): Despite the global economic slowdown, some segments of India's services sector, including IT, education and organised retail, retained "high" growth rate of 10-20 per cent this fiscal, an industry lobby survey said here Sunday.
The survey by the the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said: "Although the slowdown is expected to make a further dent in the growth of some segments of the sector, given its overall contribution of 63 per cent to the GDP (gross domestic product), the services sector growth is expected to help maintain a healthy GDP growth this fiscal."
According to the survey, the number of wireless subscribers grew 50 per cent in April-November compared to the same month last year. Internet subscribers grew 26 per cent and broadband subscribers went up 87.7 per cent during the period, it added.
During 2007-08, the services sector grew 10.7 per cent, higher than the 8.8 per cent growth in the manufacturing and 4.5 per cent growth in the agriculture sectors.
Sectors like housing finance, entertainment and media industry, IT and IT-enabled services, organised retail trade, education and training have seen a "high growth of 10-20 per cent" in April-November, the report said.