What does the Indian government’s new International Trade Analytics Platform mean for foreign investors? India Inc. CEO Manoj Ladwa unravels this new data revolution in the country.
It’s an initiative that will empower Indian SMEs and foreign investors alike.
Anyone wanting any information on India’s foreign trade can log on to the government’s new International Trade Analytics Platform and access all import and export data.
Thus far, this information was very difficult to come by. Sure, it wasn’t a closely guarded state secret, but it was available to only a handful of large organisations, who sold it to other large organisations at a steep price.
The small and medium segments of trade and industry, the backbone of any country’s economy and the main provider of employment in India, were cut completely out of this charmed circle. They, thus, had to depend on a wing and a prayer – or plain luck – when deciding on which items to make or buy for exports and which items to import.
And it isn’t just Indian SMEs that will benefit. Foreign investors and large Indian companies will also gain. Having data on which commodities are being imported from which countries, through which ports and in what quantities will allow them to plan their supply chains better and enable them to compete better in the large Indian market.
But the Indian version of “perestroika” (restructuring) and “glasnost” (openness) ushered in by the Narendra Modi government has broken up many a closed club that thrived in Lutyen’s Delhi. The cabal of retired and serving bureaucrats and crony capitalists, who exercised power by zealously blocking all access to information, will be the one to feel the heat from this decision.
Not only will it empower small and medium businessmen access data on international trade as soon as it becomes available, the big data analytics tools embedded into the platform will also enable them to slice and dice the data according to their needs.
This far reaching initiative, which, unfortunately, has not received much media attention so far, is a direct result of the Digital India Initiative, one of Prime Minister
Modi’s flagship schemes. It delivers on the promise of increasing transparency in public life and empowering citizens to make informed decisions.
It will also impact the Prime Minister’s Make in India programme by providing, on a free and open platform, trade data that will enable SMEs to understand what their competitors are doing, produce relevant goods for the export market and import goods at the lowest cost from the best suppliers anywhere in the world.
The government, policy-makers and investors have been worried at the falling trend in Indian exports, which have been languishing for the last 18 months. This new “data revolution” launched by the Indian government can help reverse the trend and lift exports by making relevant information available to those who need it in a timely manner.
Academia will also benefit by getting access to this data. Large and small institutes, individual researchers and media houses will now be able to analyse trade data and open up new areas of debate on the Indian economy.
The government will gain as well. Having up-to-date access to trade data as well as easy-to-use tools to analyse it will give the relevant departments the wherewithal to react fast to dynamic situations to optimise the country’s trade potential.
Coming as it does on the heels of the passage of the Bankruptcy Code and the enabling legislation for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), this latest initiative will undoubtedly improve the ease of doing business in India and also improve the competitive edge of Indian industry.
In conclusion, it’s a great move that will create a win-win situation for all stakeholders in India’s foreign trade.
