Tipping point: India's export of services will soon exceed that of goods

As services exports succeed, the rupee will get stronger and the manufacturing sector will find it harder to compete globally, causing a shortage of domestic jobs for rural youth, writes T N Ninan

India may soon cross perhaps a unique tipping point when its export of services becomes bigger than its export of merchandise (other than oil and gems & jewellery). Over the first four months of this financial year, services exports fetched $74.05 billion, not far short of what was fetched by merchandise exports, excluding oil and gems & jewellery ($79.81 billion). Since the first is growing at over 8 per cent, and the second at less than 2 per cent, the tipping point may be no more than a year or two away.
 
This would be an extraordinary development, and