Professional, legal, consulting, staffing & business services.

Professional and business services cover everything from Big Four audit firms and global strategy consultancies to law firms, engineering/ER&D houses, staffing agencies, BPM/KPO firms, ratings agencies and nine million private security guards. It is the connective tissue of the services economy, adding an estimated ₹13.1 lakh crore of value in FY26 (4.2% of national GVA) and compounding at roughly 16% a year since FY05 (partly a statistical effect of the FY23 rebasing). The activity is bimodal: partnerships and MNC member firms at the high-value, export-linked end (audit, law, consulting, ER&D) earn ₹20-60 lakh of value added per professional and cannot raise outside equity, while corporate providers of staffing, security and facility management sell labour at scale with thin margins and dominate the listed universe. Growth to FY30/FY35 is expected to be export-led, regulatory (GST, NFRA, labour-code formalisation) and cyclical, with generative AI seen as a net-neutral structural swing factor on value added but a headwind for BPM headcount.

Estimated GVA

13.1 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Share of national GVA

4.2 % · FY26

Revenue pool

~22 ₹ lakh crore · FY26

Employment

~13 mn workers · FY26

Exports

~40 US$ bn · FY26

Imports

~30 US$ bn · FY26

Listed sector PAT

10,384 ₹ cr · FY26

Listed sector market cap

3.49 ₹ lakh crore · FY26