India introduces housing start index

India has introduced its first ever Housing Start Up index to monitor the number of housing starts in the country.

The index, released this week, makes it the seventh country in the world to publish such data, revealing that construction dipped between 2009 and 2011 in cities such as Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, but increased in smaller locations such as Bhopal and Hubli.

The HUSI has been hailed by Global Property Guide as "a major step forward" in improving the transparency of the property market, which contributes 10% of India's GDP and employed 30 million people.