India's exports to the US and China rise while imports decline

In the last one year, exports from India to the US and China have risen whereas imports have declined.

According to the data released by the government, exports to China from India stood at $8.4 billion between April 2019 to September 2019. The numbers have gone up by 26.3 percent and stood at $10.6 billion in September 2020.

Similarly, India's exports to the US stood at $4.4 billion in September 2019 and grew by 15.5 percent to $5.1 billion in September 2020.

There has also been a decrease in imports from China which reduced to $27.4 billion in September 2020 as compared to last year when the figure stood at $36.6 billion.

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Furthermore, India's imports from the US also decreased from $2.8 billion in September 2019 to $1.8 billion in September 2020.

The government has been taking steps to reduce India's dependence on imports and bolster domestic manufacturing. Recently, the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a circular to ban the import of air conditioners with refrigerants and also revised the policy for exporting alcohol-based hand sanitisers.

The Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly after India was locked down so as to control the spread of the coronavirus, has put the spotlight back on domestic manufacturers, especially the MSMEs.

COVID-19 brought the financial health of the Indian economy to its knees and also enormously affected India's small, medium and large enterprises (MSME) sector which contributes around 30 percent to India's GDP. The coronavirus pandemic led to a freeze in production and disrupted supply chains across the world.