Export Sector of Indian Economy


Export Sector of Indian Economy has improved immensely over the years and has earned US $ 125 billion in the current fiscal year. The goods exported from India mainly include wide variety of agricultural products, chemicals, jewelery, garments, leather goods and so on.


India has developed business relations with a number of foreign countries like the member countries of SAARC, some Eastern European countries as well as African countries, Members of EU. The impressive list of countries includes:

  • Russia
  • UAE
  • USA
  • Hong Kong
  • UK
  • Japan
  • Germany
  • Singapore
  • Belgium
  • Malaysia
  • Netherlands
  • Bangladesh
  • Italy
  • Thailand
  • France
  • Australia
  • Belgium

The export sector of Indian economy has always delineated impressive growth in all the areas of export, like the chemical industry in the financial year 2005-06 recorded US $ 12677.21million from expots, whereas the export earning from gems and jewelery was US $ 13705.44million in the same fiscal. The engineering industry has been performing consistently over the years in the arena of exports as it secured the second position in terms of the earnings from exports in 2004-05, amounting to US $ 10516.45million, which increased to US $ 14587.37million in the next fiscal. The performance of textile industry has fluctuated a little as the earning of the textile industry from exports in the financial year 2004-05 was US $ 12204.71million which came down to US $ 12017.46million in 2005-06.

USA has turned out to be the most significant export partner of India and the export sector of Indian economy earned approximately US $ 13265.60 million in 2006-07. UAE has stood second only to USA as UAE contributed 9.7 out of the total Indian earnings from exports in 2006-07. UK and China has exchanged their positions in the current year as China's share among the exports figure in India in 2006-07 has improved by 6.3 % in comparison to 2005-06. In 2004-05 Belgium and Italy contributed substantially to the earnings from exports, with a contribution of US $ 2442.09 million and US $ 2160.83 million respectively.

The major export products of India hail from the following divisions within the export sector of Indian economy like:

  • Engineering Goods
  • Agricultural Products
  • Chemicals
  • Marine Products
  • Petroleum products
  • Leather Goods
  • Textiles
  • Plantations

Among the agricultural exports of India include Indian rice, raw cotton, cashew, sugar, tobacco, spices, coffee, wheat and tea have become very popular in the international market on account of their variety and excellent quality. The engineering industry serves to export electronic goods , transport equipments, iron and steel, and various machineries and the textile industry is engaged in the export of ready made garments, jute, cotton yarn, carpets, woolen yarn, coir, artificial fabrics and so on. Other significant export products include paints, rubber, iron ore, plastic, pharmaceuticals etc.

The export barriers in India have been hampering Indian exports to a great extent and most of such barriers have been announced by the European Union regarding certification requirements, application of pesticides, dumping of waste products. But the most significant export barrier faced by the Indian exporters is red tapism which is mostly accompanied by corruption. However, the government of India has considered plans to liberate the Indian exporters from the cumbersome paper works and simplify the required procedures.

Export Tariffs in India follows the regulations of the Customs Tariff Act and a substantial number of export goods are subjected to tariffs presently, such as:

  • Manganese Ore
  • Chromium Ores
  • Black Pepper
  • Sillimanite
  • Raw Wool
  • Groundnut
  • Tea and so on.