Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner and Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (APFC and EO/AO) 2025 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, PENA-A-PTS); answer worked out by our faculty — UPSC has published no answer key for this sitting. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 25 August 2026.

The contribution of the services sector in Gross Value Added at current prices in the Indian economy in 2024 – 25 is estimated to be :

(a)25%
(b)35%
(c)45%
(d)55%

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) 55%.

The services sector's share of gross value added at current prices is estimated at about 55 per cent for 2024-25. The Economic Survey 2024-25 puts the figure at 55.3 per cent, and records that the sector's contribution to total gross value added has risen from 50.6 per cent in 2013-14 to that level over the intervening decade. Among the four options offered, which are spaced ten percentage points apart, 55 per cent is the only one within reach of that estimate.

The figure is worth understanding rather than memorising, because it is the single most important structural fact about the Indian economy. Gross value added is output measured at basic prices, before product taxes are added and subsidies deducted, and it is divided among three broad sectors. Agriculture and allied activities account for something close to a sixth of it. Industry, which includes manufacturing, mining, construction and utilities, accounts for a little under a third. Services take the remaining and largest share - trade, hotels, transport and communication; financial, real estate and professional services; and public administration, defence and other services.

Two features of that share are commonly tested. The first is that it has grown steadily: services have expanded faster than the economy as a whole for most of the past three decades, which is why the share has moved by nearly five percentage points in ten years. The second is the mismatch with employment. Services produce about 55 per cent of value added while employing a much smaller proportion of the workforce, whereas agriculture is the reverse - a modest share of output and a large share of workers. That gap between output share and employment share is the standard starting point for any discussion of structural transformation in India.

A note on the stem: it ends in a colon rather than a question mark, so it is a sentence the chosen option completes.

Why the others are wrong

(a)25% — 25 per cent is far below the services share and is closer to what industry contributes to gross value added. It is the kind of figure a candidate produces by confusing the services share of output with the services share of employment, which is much smaller, or by recalling the share of manufacturing alone, which is smaller still - manufacturing has hovered around a sixth of gross value added for years, well short of the ambitions expressed for it in successive policy statements.
(b)35% — 35 per cent understates the services share by twenty percentage points, and it corresponds fairly closely to the whole of industry - manufacturing, mining, construction and utilities taken together, whose combined share of gross value added is a little under a third. The option would be right for a different sector, which is what makes it worth naming rather than dismissing: a candidate who has the sectoral shares in mind but attaches them to the wrong sector will land here or on the first option.
(c)45% — 45 per cent is the closest of the wrong options and the one most likely to be chosen by a candidate working from a memory of the services share as it was some years ago rather than as it is now. The share crossed the halfway mark well before the period this question asks about - it stood at 50.6 per cent as far back as 2013-14 - and has continued to rise since. Choosing 45 per cent means using a figure that was already out of date a decade ago, and the item's ten-point spacing between options is designed so that such a lag produces a wrong answer rather than an approximately right one.

Concept

Gross value added is the measure of output used for sectoral analysis. It is the value of goods and services produced, measured at basic prices - that is, before product taxes are added and product subsidies deducted. Gross domestic product at market prices equals gross value added at basic prices plus product taxes minus product subsidies, which is why the two series differ and why sectoral shares are always quoted from the former.

The three-sector division of gross value added in India today runs roughly: agriculture and allied activities about a sixth; industry, meaning manufacturing, mining, construction and electricity and other utilities, a little under a third; services the remainder, about 55 per cent.

Within services the largest components are trade, hotels, transport, communication and broadcasting; financial, real estate and professional services; and public administration, defence and other services.

The long trend is the important part. Services have grown faster than the rest of the economy since the 1990s, which has moved their share from around 40 per cent to around 55 per cent, and the shift has come chiefly at the expense of agriculture. India's path is unusual among large economies in that services expanded before manufacturing had reached a large share, so the country moved from an agrarian to a services-led structure without a prolonged manufacturing phase - the observation behind the policy emphasis on raising manufacturing's share.

The accompanying fact to hold is employment. Services generate a majority of output from a minority of workers, agriculture the reverse, and the gap between the two ratios is a measure of the difference in productivity per worker between the sectors.

Sectoral shares of output are asked in every one of these papers in some form, and the questions are usually set with widely spaced options, as here, so that an approximate figure is enough. That is a deliberate kindness and a trap at once: it means the item can be answered without precision, but it also means an out-of-date figure will be a full option away from the truth rather than a rounding error.

The reliable source for the current numbers is the Economic Survey presented before the Union Budget, and its chapter on services carries both the share and the growth rate for the year. A candidate preparing for these papers should take three numbers from each Survey - the sectoral shares, the growth rates, and the headline fiscal and inflation figures - and should note the year each belongs to, because these questions always specify one.

The stem here is also worth noticing as a matter of form. It ends in a colon and is completed by the option rather than answered by it, a shape that appears occasionally on this paper alongside the more usual interrogative stems.

Key facts

The Economic Survey 2024-25 estimates the services sector's share of gross value added at 55.3 per cent for 2024-25, up from 50.6 per cent in 2013-14.
Gross value added is measured at basic prices; gross domestic product at market prices equals gross value added plus product taxes minus product subsidies, which is why sectoral shares are quoted from gross value added.
The other two sectors take roughly a sixth for agriculture and allied activities and a little under a third for industry, which comprises manufacturing, mining, construction and utilities.
Services produce a majority of output from a minority of the workforce, while agriculture employs a large share of workers for a modest share of output - the productivity gap at the centre of India's structural transformation.
India's services share rose before manufacturing had reached a large share of output, which is the unusual feature of its structural path among large economies.

Study next

Gross value added and gross domestic product: basic prices, market prices, and the bridge of product taxes and subsidies between them.The composition of the services sector in the national accounts and the growth of its principal components.Sectoral shares of output against sectoral shares of employment, and what the divergence implies about productivity.The structural transformation debate in India, and why manufacturing's share has been slow to rise.Reading the Economic Survey for examination purposes: which chapters carry the sectoral shares, the growth rates and the fiscal indicators.

Common traps

Using a services share remembered from several years ago; the figure crossed 50 per cent more than a decade ago and continues to rise.
Confusing the services share of output with the services share of employment, which is very much smaller.
Quoting the share of manufacturing alone when the question asks about industry, or the share of industry when it asks about services.
Mixing gross value added with gross domestic product; the sectoral shares are conventionally quoted from the former and differ slightly if taken from the latter.
Overlooking the year specified in the stem, since these shares move by a few tenths of a percentage point every year.

The economy questions on these papers are set on figures that appear in the Economic Survey and in Budget documents, and they are asked with the year attached. Options are usually spaced far enough apart that an approximately remembered figure suffices, which means the marks go to candidates who have looked at the current Survey rather than to those who have memorised decimals. Expect one or two such items per paper on sectoral shares, growth rates or the fiscal deficit, and prepare them as a small table of headline numbers with their years rather than as prose.

Related PYQs

EPFO_APFC_2023_Q58

Consider the following statements : 1. The Department of Economic Affairs is a nodal agency of the Government of India to formulate and monitor the country’s economic policies and programmes that have a bearing on the domestic and international aspects of economic management. 2. The principal responsibility of the Department of Economic Affairs is the preparation and presentation of the Union Budget (including the Railway Budget) before the Parliament, and the Budgets for Union Territories and States under the President’s Rule. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer(c) Both 1 and 2

On the Department of Economic Affairs and its responsibility for economic policy and the Union Budget - the office from which the Economic Survey and these figures come.

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q32

How does an expansionary monetary policy affect the rate of interest and level of income ?

(a) Raises the level of income but lowers the rate of interest
(b) Raises the rate of interest but lowers the level of income
(c) Raises both, the rate of interest and the level of income
(d) Lowers both, the rate of interest and the level of income

Answer(a) Raises the level of income but lowers the rate of interest

Asks how an expansionary monetary policy affects the rate of interest and the level of income, another item testing macroeconomic fundamentals rather than current data.

EPFO_APFC_2016_Q56

Which of the following industries were first established during the British Rule in India ?

(a) Cotton Textile Industry; and Jute Industry
(b) Jute Industry; and Iron and Steel Industry
(c) Cotton Textile Industry; and Chemical Industry
(d) Jute Industry; and Chemical Industry

Answer(a) Cotton Textile Industry; and Jute Industry

Asks which industries were first established in India under British rule, an item on the long-run composition of the economy.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
In the Indian national accounts, gross domestic product at market prices differs from gross value added at basic prices by :
- (a)The addition of product taxes and the deduction of product subsidies
- (b)The deduction of depreciation
- (c)The addition of net factor income from abroad
- (d)The deduction of intermediate consumption
Answer(a) The addition of product taxes and the deduction of product subsidies - that is the bridge between the two measures. Depreciation separates gross from net, factor income from abroad separates domestic from national, and intermediate consumption is already netted out in arriving at value added.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following best describes the trend in the sectoral composition of India's gross value added over the last three decades ?
- (a)A rising share for services, chiefly at the expense of agriculture
- (b)A rising share for manufacturing, chiefly at the expense of services
- (c)A rising share for agriculture, chiefly at the expense of industry
- (d)Broadly unchanged shares for all three sectors
Answer(a) A rising share for services, chiefly at the expense of agriculture - services have grown faster than the economy as a whole since the 1990s while agriculture's share has fallen, and industry's share has been comparatively flat.

Why