Page 697 - ES 2020-21_Volume-1-2 [28-01-21]

324 Economic Survey 2020-21 Volume 2

CHAPTER AT A GLANCE

 India’s Services sector witnessed a significant set-back during the COVID-19 pandemic
mandated lockdown. Owing to its contact-intensive nature, the sector contracted by nearly
16 per cent during the first half of the financial year 2020-21.

 Air passenger traffic, rail freight traffic, port traffic, foreign tourist arrivals, and foreign
exchange all contracted sharply as soon as the first lockdown was announced in March
2020. However, there are now signs of steady recovery.
 Despite the disruptions being witnessed globally, FDI inflows into India’s services sector
grew robustly by 34 percent YoY during April-September 2020 to reach US$ 23.6 billion.
 The year 2020-21 witnessed many significant structural reforms. Telecom related
regulations were removed from the IT-BPO sector, and consumer protection
regulations were introduced for e-commerce.
 The shipping turnaround time at ports has almost halved from 4.67 days in 2010-11 to
2.62 days in 2019-20. As per the latest UNCTAD data, the median ship turnaround time
globally is 0.97 days, suggesting that India has room to further improve upon the efficiency
at ports.
 The Indian start-up ecosystem has been progressing well amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
India is home to 38 unicorns, adding a record number of 12 start-ups to the unicorn list
last year.

 India’s space sector has grown exponentially in the past six decades. India spent about
US$ 1.8 billion on space programmes in 2019-20. However, the country still lags behind
major players in the sector, such as USA, China and Russia. The Indian Space ecosystem
is undergoing several policy reforms to engage private players and attract innovation and
investment.