Export Sector in India


The export sector of Indian economy made comprehensive progress over the last decade. The exponential growth of the export sector of Indian economy can be attributed to the liberal Government of India economic policy. Indian exports have an ambitious target of US 160 billion in 2007-08. The achievement came to the Indian exports in the last fiscal despite the odds against the exports, minimizing the gains. In the first two months of 2007-08 exports grew by 20.3%, which was a little lower than the previous year over the same period a year ago.


The Government of India latest export policy for the exporters will help in stabilizing the export growth levels attained in the 1st quarter of 2007-2008. Ores and minerals exports grew moderately to 12.9% against 37.4% in 2005-06. Similar trend was also observed in the exports of manufacturing sector. The exports of manufactured goods from India grew moderately by 15% in the first quarter of 2007-2008 as compared to 21.2% in the last fiscal year. High value commodities like engineering goods and rice registered very high growth rate in the 1st quarter of this fiscal against the same period last year. The overall exports suggests that the Indian exports grew considerably across all major exporting destinations. The Indian exports to Pakistan, UAE and Italy showed remarkable growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

The astronomical growth of the Indian export sector was led by the following industry

  • Information Technology
  • Information Technology Enabled Services
  • Telecommunications hardware
  • Electronics and hardware
  • Pharmaceutical and biotechnology products
  • Consumer durables
  • Textiles
  • Construction machinery
  • Power equipment
  • Food grains
  • Iron and steel
  • Chemicals and fertilizers

The robust overall growth of export sector of Indian economy led to secondary growth of the following economic parameters

  • India's economy grew at 9.3% in quarter April-June and it was driven by manufacturing, construction and services sector and agriculture sector
  • GDP factor for the first quarter of 2007-08 was at Rs 7,23,132 crore, registering a growth rate of 9.3% over the corresponding quarter of previous year
  • Exports grew by 18.11% during the 1st quarter of 2007-2008 and the imports shoot up by 34.30% during the same period
  • India's FOREX reserves (excluding Gold and SDRs) stood at $219.75 billion at the end of July ' 07
  • The annual inflation rate was 4.45% for the week ended July 28, 2007
  • India's Balance of Payments is expected to remain comfortable
  • Merchandise Exports recorded strong growth
  • According to reports, productivity growth rate of Indian economy is estimated to be around 8% and above until 2020

At this stupendous growth of the export sector of Indian economy, it is expected that India will become the second largest economy in the world after China.