Business activity across India’s service sector continued to contract in May as Covid-19 led shutdowns impaired business operations, restricted consumer footfall and led to a demand collapse along with job cuts. The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index was 12.6 in May, up from April’s record low of 5.4. A reading above 50 on the index indicates expansion while lower than that shows contraction. The data was collected from May 12-27 across around 400 service sector companies. “Although the headline figure rose from April’s unprecedented low of 5.4, it remained at a level which, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, was unparalleled in over 14 years of data collection and pointed to an extreme drop in services activity across India,” HIS Markit said in the report.