Posts

Showing posts from 2018

Ease of Doing Business and States export performance

Image
Do business reforms lead to better export performance? Are there any other measure(s) that correlate with export performance by Indian states? We can measure merchandise export performance of states against Ease of Doing Business and also against the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) index for some preliminary understanding of the matter in Indian context. India has a Business Reforms score  that measures the individual states in terms of ease of doing business, on similar lines as that of World Bank's (WB) Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). This is to help identify the reforms required to make doing business easier. The score card - let's call it EoDB for the sake of the simplicity - is maintained for all states and union territories of India. LEADS index is relatively new. It has been created on the lines of World Bank's logistics performance index and covers various states and union territories of India. The 2018 report prepared by Deloitte for ministry of

November numbers for foreign trade - some points

Image
The November 2018 numbers for India's foreign trade are here . The summary for April-Nov 2018 is as shown in the figure below: Trade stats of India - Summary At this rate, we would end up with an annual deficit of around 192 Billion USD, a significant jump from a deficit of around 162 Billion USD during last financial year. The below are the numbers for last financial years imports listed in descending order of value of imports (excel online may take time to load). The first item in the list, the mineral fuels and oils, is a necessary need as India doesn't produce any oil. Out of the imported crude coming under this chapter, we refine and export around 38 Billion USD refined petroleum products. Thus the net deficit is around 94 Billion USD. This is the fuel oil bill for India every year. The second item in the list, the pearls precious stones and metal, mainly constitute of imports of diamonds and gold. India is the largest diamond polisher, and one of the bigge

Dhaka Vs Ranchi - a post GST scenario analysis of apparel imports

Image
Under the existing system of trade and indirect taxation prevailing in textile and garment sector, does it makes more sense for a Bangalore stockist of apparels to import from Dhaka in Bangladesh over buying from Ranchi? Here's the self explanatory calculation. Assumptions: Bangladesh usually sources fabric from China while an Indian supplier sources fabric from an Indian supplier based in Gujarat/other states. I shall assume that the price at the factory gate of fabric manufacturer for both Chinese and Indian fabric is same - usually Chinese fabric is cheaper. The transportation cost from China to Bangladesh is same as that from Gujarat/other states to Ranchi - usually Chinese transport cost would be smaller. I shall also assume, for sake of simplicity that labor cost in Bangladesh is same as that in Ranchi, while a ballpark analysis tells that Bangla labor is cheaper by 40% over Indian labor. (Excel online may take some time to load the table below - I shall be thankful an

MSME support and outreach - The 100 districts 100 days initiative

Image
On 2nd November 2018, the Prime Minister of India launched schemes for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which he termed as the Diwali gift for the hard working honest entrepreneurs of India. It was termed 'Support and Outreach' initiative for MSMEs. The initiative was launched for 100 districts to be continued for 100 days.  MSMEs are important for the growth story of India. There is no certain way to measure the number of MSMEs. The numbers given out by various agencies varies from 60 million units (CII) of operational MSMEs to 120 million units (NSSO). They are supposed to contribute around 7% to the GDP through manufacturing activities (share of manufacturing in GDP is around 26% in India), and 25% to GDP through services (share of services in GDP is around 58%).  MSMEs contribute around 40 to 45% in total exports from India based on various reports. This number too has unsure origins. Nevertheless, even with the data inaccuracies, there is no doubt that MSM

The mid year review of Foreign Trade Performance of India

Image
India's financial year is counted from April to March. That makes it out of step from regular calendar year followed at most places. The September numbers for foreign trade is here. So that makes it a half year data being available for this financial year. The brief summary from the official report is as follows: India's foreign trade summary - April to Sept 2018 Imports over the period has grown faster than exports of merchandise and services. To that extent, the trade deficit worsens. What is noticeable is that even in services, the trend is following merchandise in terms of imports growing faster. India maintains an overall services surplus of around 70 Billion USD per annum that helps bridge the merchandise trade deficit of around 200 Billion USD (other gap-filling coming through various forms of capital flows). Since 2013, when the exports last grew significantly, we are stuck in doldrums in the range of around 300 Billion USD exports. The government has exhaust

NAFTA Rebooted - some points

How do you stop the President from tearing up a trade deal. As per Bob Woodward in his new book Fear:Trump in White House, by simply pulling out the signing paper from the desk. The President simply forgot that he had to unsign the NAFTA deal, or rather sign a NAFTA withdrawal (someone please do that for RCEP in India). While the deal break never happened (or engineered to not happen), the revised onerous negotiations on NAFTA wound their way to give the world a glimpse of what makes the US President happy when it comes to trade deals. Mexico has hammered out a deal that's acceptable to the US President. And going by the look of it, Trump loves trophies. He got his wall sponsored. Well almost. Canadians are still thinking, and bargaining.  One can understand the Canadian negotiators' dilemma. There's noting on the table for Canadians if they sign. But if they don't, they have things to lose in trade and economic growth. US is their biggest trade partner with more

National logistics portal of India - A step in right direction

Image
National logistics portal for logistics service providers India is planning to setup a National Logistics Portal  on an e-marketplace model. The initial idea was mooted sometime during February 2018 . The idea is to have an amazon for logistics service providers that would help bring down the logistics cost in the country. In principle, this is a great idea. The rest boils down to execution. In that respect, I find the National Trade Portal of Singapore to be a good single window example to emulate. While I am not a fan of Government being in business of making e-marketplaces of anything, I believe that public sector needs to step in to create infra-superstructures if/when the private sector fails. This effort falls in the category of private sector not living up to the expectations.  The logistics portal aims to bring onboard some 80 odd regulatory functions under one umbrella. I assume most of this boils down to providing links to the respective websites, which while d

Urgently needed - an integrated E commerce policy for India

Image
E-commerce policymaking in India is a story of missed chances. As late as couple of months ago, the government was in the process of setting up a think-tank to formulate national E-commerce policy . It would take another six months for the rough contours to be formed, and for the interdepartmental heads to come to some kind of consensus, or not. A reason for not formulating a national policy was that the area of B2C E-commerce is handled by various ministries/departments ranging from India post, RBI, commerce, industries, finance and IT. Coming as late as it would, even if it comes within scheduled time, it would still make a good joke but for the fact that it is true.  To put things in perspective, we are at a stage where India has been reduced to a marketplace for plunder by multinationals. On one had we have what The Economist calls the FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google/Alphabet) and on the other we have the Chinese BATs (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent). T

Rupee value and exports in short run

Image
(This post was originally published at the Hindu Business line here ) A belief in weak Rupee A common belief while the Rupee depreciates against USD is that it would help our exports. This ‘weak rupee shall help exports’ is shown as a positive over various negatives arising out of falling Rupee. There is great attractiveness in the argument supported by textbook economics. Undervalued or depreciated currency acts as a direct subsidy for exports while acting as a punitive tax on imports. China used the undervaluation of currency as an effective international trade tool for decades. The undervaluation doesn’t fall foul with the regional or multilateral agreements in the way export subsidies do. However, given India’s situation, it is doubtful if we can have a conscious control on the level of Rupee anymore in light of the central bank’s mandate getting anchored to inflation control. Till some time ago there were calls to depreciate the rupee through direct intervention to help

Leveraging export control group memberships

India has recently become member to Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the three leading export control regimes in the world. The memberships to these bodies reflect acceptance of India as a responsible growing power, and an acknowledgement of impeccable non-proliferation record that India has maintained over decades.  However, a mere membership doesn’t confer the desired benefits unless India walks the extra mile to harness the technological benefits these agreements confer. Lest it be misunderstood, one must state here that India has shown tremendous self resolve to develop technologically despite non-cooperation from leading technology powers over decades, especially in the area of missiles, space and computers. However, with the membership to the technology control groups, we may now look forward to develop as a partner and a leader in future if we strategize and work towards it in mission mode.  The export control m

The wage factor in NAFTA negotiations - a potential deal breaker

NAFTA renegotiations have run into rough weather over the twist given by USA by trying to introduce a wage factor into the negotiations over auto sector. Apart from rules of origin requirements, USA wants that at-least 30% of content by partner countries should be made by workers who earn more than the median wages for workers in the auto sector in US.  This is new and preposterous. It could be the dealbreaker. It might be better to face a non NAFTA trade barrier of 2.5% over complying with this provision. The median wages in USA for auto workers is almost 8 times that in Mexico on an average. In addition, there would be the burden of accounting and bookkeeping to comply with the provision.  These types of requirements are usually designed for dealing with developing countries who prove too hot to handle for the domestic sector in developed countries. Recall the child labour free certifications, carbon footprint requirements, wood certification for legality and so on. These

The forgotten caveats

Image
The headline in the business standard reads : " India must grow at 18% to ensure jobs to growing workforce: World Bank ".   The article is based on the recent world bank report titled " Jobless Growth " under the south  Asia  economic focus series.  One  would  agree that 18%  growth  for a country of our size is not attainable . That being so, the headline implies that World Bank is saying that India cannot secure jobs to its  growing   workforce . Gloomy picture indeed. There is an element of certainty about the nice round number 18 which misleads a lay reader.  It is not so if one reads the actual report. The actual report has pushed in enough caveats to survive any close scrutiny about the number 18. The problem is, the report presents things in a way  that   make  newspapers pick up such headlines. That's a danger that any report writer should be wary about, and should factor in while  presenting  data to a lay reader.   To expand the debate, the

Mainstreaming block chain technology in international commerce

This post was originally published at The Hindu Business Line newspaper here Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), a concept of recording and sharing data across multiple data stores, or ledgers as they are popularly called, is an idea whose time has come. The concept of DLT was introduced through block chains in the famous paper by the elusive author known only as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. While the initial application was limited to crypto currencies, it didn’t take much time for the world to realise that the underlying technology of using distributed ledgers has multiple applications spanning various spheres. However, it is only lately that we are seeing actual implementation of the often discussed concepts. To cite an example of block chain application in mainstream commerce in India, we may look at the Trade Receivable Discounting System (TReDS) guidelines of the RBI, which sought to set up a system to ease the liquidity crunch for MSMEs by way of bill/invoice factoring in

Strategic manufacturing growth - tariffs and policy nudges

Image
(This post was originally published at Swarajya magazine https://swarajyamag.com/economy/building-a-manufacturing-ecosystem-screwdriver-technology-will-show-the-way)  India has become   world’s second largest   mobile phone manufacturer in the world after china. While there are reasons to cheer, there is also a feeling that we are at the screwdriver level technology when it comes to electronics hardware manufacturing. We bring in most of the components and assemble them here using screwdrivers. The critiques use the term screwdriver technology to deride such activities. What many of them miss is the fact that usually such screwdriver technologies are the stepping-stones to upper levels of value chain. And while at it, the millions who turn the screwdrivers have a job. During early 2000s I used to work in the engineering product development at an Indian firm. We designed the components in house, did all validation tests, and launched the products in the market. My skills