Gem of a fact, exports zoom

India has managed to perform well on the export front this fiscal. Provisional figures of exports for the period April, 2002 to February, 20...

India has managed to perform well on the export front this fiscal. Provisional figures of exports for the period April, 2002 to February, 2003 indicate that exports have grown by as much as 16.76 per cent in dollar terms (and 18.8 per cent in rupee terms) over the same period in the preceding financial year.

In specific terms, exports during the first 11 months in the fiscal 2002-03 amounted to Rs 2,23,249 crore as compared to Rs 1,87,876 crore during the corresponding period in the fiscal 2001-02.

Growth of exports from export-oriented units, special economic zones and erstwhile EPZ sector has been over 20 per cent during this period. This growth has been contributed mainly by textiles, gems and jewellery, engineering products particularly auto and auto ancillaries, drugs and pharmaceuticals, chemicals and agro products.

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Moreover, sizeable growth is visible in India’s exports to major markets such as the United States, the European Union and South East Asia. This has been achieved in the face of global recession, particularly in the United States market since 9/11.

India has adopted the goal to reach 1 per cent share of global merchandise trade by the year 2007, up from the level of 0.67 per cent at present. For this, Indian exports have to grow at 12 per cent per year and to double in dollar terms from roughly $40 billion per annum to $80 billion.

Though the government is confident that the merchandise exports will cross the mark of $50 billion in 2002-03, the uncertainly emanating in the Mid-East has inspired the government to emphasise more on service exports and taking other initiatives too rather than just focussing on merchandise exports.