Exports

India's exports of both goods and services have been exceptionally strong so far in 2021-22. Merchandise exports have been above $30 billion for eight consecutive months in 2021-22, despite a rise in trade costs arising from global supply constraints such as fewer operational shipping vessels, exogenous events such as blockage of Suez Canal and Covid-19 outbreak in the port city of China etc.

According to data released by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, the city's export volume totalled 5.74 trillion yuan last year, up 15.2 per cent on a yearly basis, reports Xinhua news agency. Meanwhile, its import volume increased by 15.6 per cent to reach 4.35 trillion yuan.

APL Raffles is one of the largest vessels in the fleet of CMA CGM. Built in 2013, this 1,76,727 DWT, 17292 TEUs capacity vessel is 397.88 metre long and 51 meter wide. This is almost equivalent to four football fields. This is another important milestone for Mundra Port. In 2021, Mundra Port became the largest container port in India, and now the port has berthed, at one of its terminals, the largest container vessel to call India.

The top five export destinations in April-November 2021 are - USA (18 per cent), UAE (16.6 per cent), China (7.6 per cent), Netherlands (4.5 per cent) and Germany (4.2 per cent). Meanwhile, the electronic goods exports in December 2021 touched $1.67 billion, registering a growth of 33.99 per cent, over $1.25 billion logged in December 2020. The overall electronic goods exports FY21 were $11.11 billion.

The sector clocked $28.9 billion in exports as compared to $16.9 billion during the same period in 2020. Compared to the same period before the Covid pandemic struck, the gems and jewelry sector registered a growth of 3 per cent over $28 billion achieved in April-December 2019.

Crisil Research said that an increased budgetary allocation in the form of 'grants-in-aid', as envisaged under the trade infrastructure for exports scheme, which seeks to create first or last-mile connectivity for export-oriented projects, will drive the objective of enhancing competitiveness.

 Exports of engineering goods jumped to $81.8 billion during April-December 2021 (Provisional) as compared to $52.9 billion during the same period in the previous year (2020), registering a stupendous growth of 54 per cent. Engineering goods sector constituted the largest -- over 27 per cent -- share of India's total exports basket during the period. In December 2021, exports of engineering goods touched $9.79 billion, registering a growth of 38.41 per cent over $7.07 bn logged in December 2020.

India's gem and jewellery exports during December 2021 grew 29.49 per cent to $3,040.92 million (Rs 22,914.6 crore) as compared to $2,348.44 million (Rs 16,712.46 crore) in December 2019 -- the pre-pandemic year, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council said. Besides, exports during April-December rose 5.8 per cent to $29,084 million from $27,500 during the same period of 2019.

Besides, exports during April-December rose 5.8 per cent to $29,084 million from $27,500 during the same period of 2019. "The holiday bounce has managed to offset part of the post-Diwali export slump when factories normally take a short break. Holiday and festive demand was robust in important trading centres such as the US, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Israel," Council Chairman Colin Shah said.

Goyal lauded the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) industry including the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector for the record Services exports during the last year and informed that the Government has taken several steps to boost the start-up ecosystem, as removing problems of ‘Angel tax', simplification of tax procedure & allowing self-certification and self-regulation, reducing the burden of over 26,500 compliances and decriminalization of 770 compliances.