India to give sops to job-oriented export sectors: Sharma

The Indian government proposes to announce incentives for some labour-intensive export sectors like tea, handicrafts and readymade garments, which lagged behind in regaining the global market.

The Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in the of the Commerce Ministry has completed sectoral reviews and identified the sectors which are struggling even as India's overall exports have registered a growth of about 29 per cent in December 2010.

Job-oriented sectors such as tea, cashew, apparel, carpets, leather, textiles and handicrafts continue to face weak demand in traditional markets such as Europe and the US.

"Sectoral reviews have been completed...I propose to have a final meeting (with the ministry officials) and announce more incentives to sectors which are struggling," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here at the sidelines of 'India Show 2011' jointly organised by the ministry and CII.

India's exports went up by 36.4 per cent in December 2010, highest in the last 33 months, to $22.5 billion due to improvement in demand in the traditional markets as also diversification of the overseas markets such as Latin America and Africa.

A sharp rise of 112 per cent in engineering exports was helped much by orders from Latin American countries like Columbia.

India's outward shipments are projected between $215-225 billion in the current fiscal.