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The Times of India
The Times of India
Business
TIMESOFINDIA.COM

Despite global slowdown, India's exports to top last year’s record of $420 billion

NEW DELHI: India's exports are set to hit a new record in the current fiscal year, a report by economists at State Bank of India (SBI) said. Last year, India achieved record exports worth $420 billion, surpassing its target of $400 billion during the year. The feat was achieved 9 days ahead of the scheduled deadline of March 31, 2022.

SBI's latest Ecowrap report said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'One District One Product' scheme has led to several states quadrupling their exports. In addition, exports of finished or intermediate goods, push from production linked incentives scheme, and multi-year high commodity and food prices have also contributed to this export growth.

"In FY23, exports have so far recorded $229 biliion in H1FY23 and at this rate, India’s exports are on par to overtake $420 billion in current fiscal....The government of India's consistent and concerted endeavours to usher in reforms for boosting agricultural exports have been highly fruitful and currently showing results," said Dr Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser at State Bank of India.

He also noted that agricultural exports rose remarkably despite Covid-19 and crossed the $50 billion-mark in FY22. Efforts are being made to expand India’s agri-export basket and promote export of products unique to India.

What is One District One Product

The One District One Export – District as Export Hubs (ODOP-DEH) initiative began in Uttar Pradesh in 2018 to transform every district into an export hub, following which the ODOP-DEH was then applied to other states in the country.

Exports of 16 states have trebled since the introduction of ODOP-DEH initiative by the government, noted the report by SBI Research.

The ODOP programme intends to essentially transform every district of the country into an export hub by identifying and promoting a product in which the district specialises.

Under ODOP-DEH, products and/or services with export potential have been identified in country’s 733 districts, including agricultural & toy clusters and GI products in these districts. Toy manufacturing clusters have been identified in 12 Districts.

Exports of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have increased more than thrice since introduction of ODOP-DEH initiative.

These include all top 10 states with export preparedness except Tamil Nadu whose export increased more than twice.

State-wise exports showed Gujarat led the tally in FY22 with exports amounting to $126,805 million, up 366 per cent from $27,159 million in FY19 followed by Maharashtra’s $73,120 million exports in FY22, jumping 218 per cent from $22,986 million in FY19 and Tamil Nadu’s 192 per cent growth in exports from $12,033 million in FY19 to $35,169 million in FY22, the report noted.

Haryana’ export jumped more than 314 per cent to $15.55 billion as compared to FY19.

Several other states grew their export three times from where it stood in FY19. Bihar registered nearly 400 per cent growth in FY22 from FY19.

"ODOP– DEH is a transformational step towards realizing the true potential of a district, fuelling economic growth, generating employment and rural entrepreneurship, aimed at fostering balanced regional development across all districts of the country enabling holistic socio-economic growth across all regions, enabling MSMEs, farmers and small industries to get benefit of export opportunities in the overseas markets," noted the report.

In FY23, exports have so far recorded $229 billion in the first half of FY23 and at this rate, India’s exports are on course to overtake $420 billion in the current fiscal.

States with export infrastructure and export preparedness are capturing the momentum provided by the ODOP-DEH initiative, said SBI Research.

"Focus of ODOP-DEH on GI products is good however it can additionally focus more on capitalizing on raw materials and intermediate goods for integrating in Global Value Chains...So far, services identified for export promotion are very few and only pertain to Tourism, IT/ITES. Indian Economy is service basedand around 55% of GDP coming from service sector, Services Exports should be given more prominent place under ODOP-DEH," said Ghosh.

He also believes India should capitalize on the “China+1” strategy, avoid protectionism and corrections of inverted duty structures for boosting export competitiveness of India’s economy.

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