SPECIAL FUND
EARMARKED FOR PROMOTING EXPORTS FROM STATES – RUDY
A Special Fund has
been earmarked by the government for providing financial assistance
to the States towards infrastructural development for promoting
their exports. This was stated by Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister
of State for Commerce & Industry, while inaugurating the first
Seminar under the aegis of the Directorate General of Commercial
Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S), Kolkata, of the Ministry
of Commerce & Industry on "Post-WTO Trade Scenario – An Indian
Perspective" in Kolkata today. Stating that the government have
taken a number of policy initiatives for promoting exports in
the highly competitive trade environment of the WTO regime, Shri
Rudy indicated that clearance had been given for establishing
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Agri Export Zones (AEZs) in
different parts of the country wherein a number of concessions
and incentives would be provided to the exporters. Listing out
the other major policy initiatives, Shri Rudy said that quantitative
restrictions on imports and exports had been withdrawn from all
items, except for a few sensitive ones; export restrictions like
those of quantity, packaging etc., were lifted for a number of
agricultural and allied products; and funds were also being provided
for implementing various schemes to promote exports from the handicrafts
and cottage industry sectors. "While imports have been liberalised,
its growth is being closely monitored and remedial actions being
taken so as to ensure that there is no sudden upsurge of imports.
However, critical analysis and interpretation of WTO-related issues
and value-added quality information are the needs of the hour
to assess the impact of the policies and reviewing them from time
to time", Shri Rudy said.
The DGCI&S, Kolkata,
was formed as a statistical branch of the then Department of Commerce
and Industry of the Government of India, in 1872. Its functions
were to estimate and quantify the statistical information relating
to agriculture, industries, trade, commerce etc. Over the decades,
the functions of this organisation had changed, at present leading
to compilations of statistical information and dissemination of
trade information to users in India and also abroad.
"It is needless to
say this premier organisation, which compiles and provides continuously
statistical information of India’s foreign trade and commerce,
over the decades, has a new role to play in the gamut of new international
economic order. Though the DGCI&S, Kolkata, is the official
repository and vendor of statistical information on India’s foreign
trade and all the ministries and departments of the Government
of India are the users of its data-base, yet there is another
aspect of data reposition, which this organisation has been undertaking:
this is sustaining the post – Uruguay Round WTO Secretariat at
Geneva, with the dissemination of published statistical information
on India’s foreign trade on a regular basis. As the WTO – function
of dissemination of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) and the Consolidated
Tariff Schedules (CTS) Data-base compiled by the WTO, has the
primary aim of providing technical assistance to the developing
and less developed member-nations to enable them to participate
more effectively in the WTO-negotiations in the future, so the
DGCI&S, Kolkata, is to provide its data-base to the official
and accredited agencies of the country for a better information
system on trade and commerce", Shri Rudy said.
