Boost Exports

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

This refers to the thought-provoking article by S R Kasbekar and Samata Dhawade (February 17). The declining trend in exports during the last few months is a matter of serious concern. This shows one weak factor of our economy exports which have never been treated as an integral part of policy making. Rather, they have been regarded to fall in a residual category in the demand and supply game. Hence, an extremely inefficient high cost structure has been foisted upon the economy.

Though the Southeast Asian turmoil has affected Indias exp-orts, yet what needs to be recognised is that in the global context, exports largely hinge on quality, reliability and prompt delivery. Indian exports have a lot of ground to cover on all these fronts. For example, gems and jewellery manufacturers have not yet been attuned to the changing fashion in the global market. Besides, India also needs to tap certain fast-growing value adding segments like processed food items, drugs, engineering items, chemicals, electronic goods, software and services. Only then can we hope to achieve the target of 1 per cent share of global exports by 2002.