The State Bank of India has launched two indices namely the SBI Monthly Composite Index and the SBI Yearly Composite Index that will primarily track manufacturing activity and offer a forward-looking economic trends. SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya told reporters in Mumbai that the Index will analyse data from both manufacturing and services industries to determine expansion or contraction in the economy. Both these indices will fulfill complementary purposes such as month-on-month sentiment movement and year-on-year growth forecast, respectively.The SBI Index, to be published on a monthly basis, will track two months in advance the possible trends in official estimates. The indices will be on a scale of 0 to 100. Index above 50 implies growth over previous respective period and less than 50 will suggest a contraction over respective period. The SBI index has been developed on the basis of the bank's internal loan portfolio, which mirrors the credit demand in the country. The index will also take into account other indicators of economic activities such as consumer spending, mining, interest rates, inflation and exchange rates on a monthly basis. The indices will be released every month post-RBI's credit growth numbers.Currently, Markers at present depend on HSBC India Purchasing Managers' Index(PMI) and HSBC India Services Business Activity Index to get clues about economic trends. The SBI Chairperson said that the index will help policy makers and market participants to identify turning points in the manufacturing cycles in advance and adjust their investment plans or strategy. She added that the process of data collection will not be outsourced as is the case with the HSBC data.