India's challenge is competitiveness

Until India becomes a real market economy, it is unlikely to have the confidence to integrate with, and compete in, the global market economy

India’s decision to stay out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will not isolate India from the global or regional economy. The fact is that India is already quite isolated — its share of global merchandise exports is minuscule, at around 1.8 per cent (China’s is around 13 per cent) and for all the talk about competitiveness in services its global share is just 3.5 per cent, lower than China’s 4 per cent. It is the Indian economy’s lack of competitiveness which is the isolating factor.  

RCEP was not going to solve that problem. If trade liberalisation alone was sufficient