TRADE UPDATE #131

Towards India’s Green Growth

03/09/2021

India appears to be doing its bit in a bid to adopt an economy-ecology approach after initiating negotiations with the UK to invest in sustainable projects and renewable energy intended to drive India’s green growth ambitions. Analysts said the 1.2bn investment package and the launch of a new Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India partnership is an integral move ahead of the impending Enhanced Trade Partnership between the two countries. We hope that the new agreements will not only strengthen India’s relations with the UK but also create opportunities in both markets and generate a plethora of green jobs, all of which are essential for our economy’s revival heading into the post-pandemic world.

Moreover, despite the global shortage of coffee, the resulting soaring prices of the beverage, India’s coffee market appears to be brewing surprisingly strong. According to data from the Coffee Board, India’s coffee exporters are getting good prices, and the output in 2020-21 has increased by 12%. Perhaps the adverse weather in Brazil, which has tremendously affected coffee plantations, and the recent covid-19 outbreaks in Vietnam, both of which are major coffee-producing regions, may further work in favor of India. However, only time can tell!


ECONOMY

August exports surge 45% YoY, led by strong global orders

Owing to an uptick in global orders, India's merchandise exports shot up in August, rising by a major 45.17 percent as compared to August 2020. Impressively, exports also rose by 27.5 percent as compared to August 2019, before the pandemic struck.


BILATERAL TRADE

India, UK Agree On $1.2 Billion Investment In Green Projects And Renewable Energy

India and the UK on Thursday agreed on a USD 1.2 billion investment in green projects and renewable energy to boost India’s green growth ambitions at the 11th India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her British counterpart Rishi Sunak, driving forward the bilateral agenda of an Enhanced Trade Partnership.


MSMES

Small Industry Day: What Indian MSMEs believe would help them become big amid myriad challenges

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) fuel India’s economy given the sheer enormity of the small enterprise base in the country. However, a significantly large number of around 6.3 crore MSMEs in India remain – MSMEs throughout their existence. The reasons are arguably less by chance and more by circumstances such as running out of money, poor technology adoption, labor issues, absence of collateral, and overall bottlenecks around ease of doing business.


INTERNATIONAL TRADE

$400 billion target: India seeks to double UAE exports, raise bar for US and UK

India is looking to double its goods exports to the UAE this fiscal and substantially increase its outbound shipments to the US, the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong as part of its plan to achieve a record $400 billion in merchandise exports this year.


COMMODITY

Indian wheat exports gain as global prices surge

Wheat exports from India have increased sharply and are bound to do well this fiscal as global supplies have been affected by lower production in the US, Russia, and Canada, industry, and trade officials said.


OTHER NEWS