Need a time frame: Such subsidy programmes can’t be stopped over night and a country like India with a lot of complexities needs a reasonable period for compliance. The government wants to give exporters the much-required time to adapt to a new regime.
Developed countries export subsidies: Moreover, the export subsidies offered by India is much less compared with those offered by the developed world in various sectors despite having achieved very high-income levels.
Other countries: Trade analysts say countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka had breached the GNI threshold before India did and are yet to stop such subsidies.
Way Forward
India must ask for the suitable time to phase out the export subsidy otherwise it may impact India’s already weak export growth.
But the long term aim should be to shift from the subsidy led model for driving the export sector towards improving general cost competitiveness in export. This can be achieved by improving export infrastructure, reducing the logistic cost, integrating all the ports with electronic data interchange and fast pacing the implementation of Sagarmala project.
NITI Aayog Forms Panel For Intelligent Transport
The NITI Aayog has set up a national level committee constituting officials from various ministries and States to develop a roadmap for the implementation of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) policy.
The National ITS policy will aim to reduce urban traffic congestion, improve parking for vehicles in cities, road safety, security of passenger and goods traffic, electronic enforcement of traffic rules and fleet management.
The committee will work towards setting uniform standards to implement the ITS in various parts of the country.
