A nation's development is reflected in the `Quality of Life' (QoL) enjoyed by its citizens. Developed countries have proved that a strong service industry is required to better the QoL. All developing nations exhibit a strong growth rate in the service sector. As a consequence, the contribution of the service sector to the GDP of a country is reckoned to be immense. India is no exception to this trend. The service sector is not only growing fast but is also facilitating the development of other sectors in the economy. The author states that the service sector acts as a base for the other sectors in the business world, although this sector is called as tertiary sector; and terms the growth of the service industry and the resulting quality of life as `Grey Revolution'. In India, it would take a full shape by the year 2025, considering the size of population, nature and quality of workforce, and industry trends. The service industry would be the chief facilitator and a pre-requisite for competition among industries leading to overall prosperity.
One
common thing that brings countries like USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, France,
Italy, Canada, etc., to one platform is that, they all belong to `developed' nations.
Prosperity of any nation is measured by economic indicators like Gross National
Product (GNP), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per Capita Income (PCI), foreign
exchange reserves, etc. But apart from these indicators, Human Development Index
(HDI) is a very important measure, which results in better `Quality of Life (QoL)'.
The contribution of service industry is very crucial for HDI and hence for QoL.
Wherever the service sector maintains a high level of contribution to a country's
GDP, the QoL is on a higher side. This is evident in the Scandinavian countries,
USA, European countries, Japan and Singapore. This shows that services contribute
to the development of a country in a major way. All the developing nations incuding
India are showing a strong growth rate in service sector and its contribution
to country's GDP.
Services
play an important role in any society and are multidimensional. Services comprises
of many different economic activities. They can be defined as activities that
add value either directly to another person or to goods belonging to another person.
Services are intangible, though often part of tangible products; they are non-storable;
and they demand a simultaneous activity between the service provider and the consumer.
The inability to store it implies that services are produced and consumed simultaneously. |
