Growing exports to be stiffer challenge

The Economic Survey on Monday cautioned that growing exports will be a "stiffer challenge than before" due to the risks of geopolitical tensions, rise in protectionism, higher trade cost because of the Red Sea crisis, and commodity price volatility.

- SHREYA NANDI

To deal with this, India needs to understand what the changing paradigms mean for the country and frame policies that straddle security concerns with economic considerations, which can be done by encouraging manufacturing in niche and complex sectors through production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes and Make in India.

According to the Survey, despite the risks, in the coming years, trade deficit is expected to decline further as the PLI scheme is expanded and India creates a globally competitive manufacturing base in several product categories.