India Stepping up its Export Game

India is one of the largest growing economies today. The country could become a huge manufacturing hub given its dense population and resources. The government is also supportive and has been launching schemes to incentivize manufacturing in India like Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat. India has gained momentum recently as countries faced supply issues in the wake of increased pandemic-induced lockdowns in China and Russia war. Other factors like an increase in consumer spending and the diversification of the supply chain also helped in the shift. Countries worldwide have also imposed trade restrictions on each other in light of changing socio-political dynamics.

Given all these factors, India was able to quickly catch up becoming one of the top five countries exporting holiday decorations and t-shirts to the US. Festival goodies sent overseas to the US last month multiplied three times as compared to the last year and reached $20 million in value. Not only festival decors, items having increased focus on labor-intensive, low-cost industries, like apparel, handicrafts, and non-electronic consumer goods saw a surge. India’s exports reached ~$400 billion in FY22 growing at a rate of ~65%.

After China, Vietnam became one of the largest suppliers to the US post the US-China Trade war. However, India is fast catching up and is in the race to give a tough fight to China and the time is right for India to seize the opportunity and expedite investments and exports. India has the potential to contribute more than $500 billion yearly to the world economy by 2030. According to the data from the government of India, Christmas decorations exports grew 54% YoY, and exports of handicrafts increased by ~32% in FY21. However, India still commands a very low 1.6% share in global exports.

The government is taking steps like the PM Gati Shakti-National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity that aims to drive multi-modal synergies, simplify trade documentation, develop an informative platform for all concerned parties, and digital clearances, optimize the current modal mix, etc. to ease exporting from India. Also, read about increasing Carbon Emissions by the Shipping Industry