CII President Sanjiv Bajaj on Tuesday suggested setting up of an export commission to widen India's overseas trade portfolio, a move which will help the country tackle external headwinds.
Bajaj made the remarks in response to the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
"India's export is less than 2 per cent of the global share. So we have a huge opportunity over here...there are some external headwinds here. I would suggest expanding the number of sectors where India can export. Let's focus on the 'one district one product policy. Let's create an export commission," he said in reply to a question on slowing exports in the first half of the current fiscal.
An entity at the Centre with corresponding entities at the state level may help increase exports of products by up to 3 times in the next 2-4 years time and also help India diversify risk and reduce dependence on few markets, the president of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said.
When asked about the survey pointing out some global effects of the conflict in Ukraine, he replied, "Those are some of the fair I would say negative headwinds that exist for India and it is something that we have to keep in mind because at the end of the day we are part of the global economy."
There are several tailwinds as well for India, Bajaj said, noting India is poised to emerge as one of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the coming decade.
"We believe a large number of sectors have reached that level where they need to invest. We are now starting to see capex come in whether it is in construction or whether it is a commodity like steel and cement chemicals.
"The government has played a very strong role with public sector capex in the last few years and industry is hoping for a similar growth to be announced in the Budget tomorrow which will continue to provide the necessary tail winds," he said.
The Union Budget for 2023-24 is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament on Wednesday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam.
On the government's PLI schemes for various sectors, Bajaj said the industry is expecting more sectors to be included in the programme.
"There are 14 sectors that cover a large part where industry has capability today starting with auto and auto components. We believe there is a scope to look at, for example, newer technology...electrolysers could be another area to look at.
"We also think that eventually we are a country with a large number of people and can we tweak PLI to focus on sectors which have high employment potential so almost do like a ELI -- employment link incentive -- scheme and this could be for sectors from tourism to film and gaming because these are sectors which can employ a large number of people."
