445 Sushma Ramachandran Senior Financial Journalist The services sector in India has grown exponentially over the past few decades to become the most dominant segment of the economy. It now occupies the biggest share of the GDP at over 60 per cent. It has even eclipsed agriculture in becoming the topmost employer. According to projections made by the ILO, services account for a 44.2 per cent share of the total employed, compared to 43.2 per cent for agriculture in 2019. In this backdrop, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s plans to create standards for the services industries appear to indicate the high priority being given to this area. Yet, it is intriguing that the minister has spoken about the need for standardisation in a sector where some segments like information technology have flourished due to benign neglect from officialdom initially. In fact, the services industries currently are more in need of support to survive the rigours of the pandemic rather than regulatory tangles.