A closer review of the performance of the Indian economy, however, suggests a continuing increase in real GDP growth over each decade since Independence, interspersed with an interregnum during the 1970s (Table 1). Interestingly, growth of manufacturing production, in terms of decadal averages, was roughly constant at around 5.65.9 per cent in the first five decades after Independence, except for the 1970s.
There are two other features of our growth history that are notable. First, agricultural growth has been subject to large variation over the decades. The 1970s interregnum is particularly marked by the severe deceleration in agricultural growth, followed by a marked recovery in the 1980s, and a slowdown thereafter. Second, until the 1990s, little note had been taken of growth in the services sector.