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Abstract
Foreign trade brings in several static and economic gains to the consumers, producers, investors, government and the country at large. It ensures growth oriented structural changes in the economy benefitting all sections of the population. Several trade theories starting from Adam Smith’s Absolute Advantage to the latest Porter’s Diamond model reiterated the benefits of free international trade and predicted the structure of foreign trade based upon several criteria. The present study, growth and composition of India’s foreign trade in recent years is based on the secondary data collected from the websites of the Reserve Bank of India and the World Bank relating to total exports and imports as well as the exports and imports of the principal commodities. The study covered the 15 year period from 2004-05 to 2018-19. The analysis of India’s total exports, imports and GDP in dollar terms indicated that all the three variables grew between 9.00 per cent and 10.00 per cent during the period under study. India’s principal export commodities like engineering goods, petroleum products and handicrafts grew around 10 per cent per annum. Similarly, India’s principal import commodities, viz., petroleum products, electronic goods and iron and steel also grew significantly both in absolute and relative terms. The study also indicated that India’s exports basket was more diversified than her import basket. The study also clearly highlighted the impact of global economic crisis of 2008 and the recent policy changes on India’s exports and imports.