Changing Structure of India’s Foreign Trade Since Liberalisation

Abstract

Government of India introduced the liberalization policy in 1991 lead to the economic reforms in the country. The policy reversed the direction of trade followed for decades. The policy primarily focused on the export growth of the country. In order to attract capital intensive industries, special Economic Zones were set up to avoid red -tapism in transactions and restrictive labor laws. As on 30th June, 2022 there were 376 SEZ’s and out of which 268 were operational (30th March, 2022), which reported an export of 37.5 billion USD as on 30th June, 2022. Out of the total employment of 26,96,180 persons in SEZs an incremental employment of 2561176(95%) was generated after February, 2006 after SEZ Act came into force. The Government of India, can come up with measures to reduce the trade deficits of the country like diversify its export destinations to reduce dependence on a few countries and reduce the impact of economic slowdown in any single market, focus on exports of high-value products such as IT services, pharmaceuticals, and engineering goods which have high demand in the global market, encourage domestic production by providing tax benefits and other incentives to domestic manufacturers, thereby reducing the need for imports, Improving the logistics and transportation infrastructure can help in reducing the cost of exports and increase efficiency