With the new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) in place since last August, hopes run high that the isolated episode of lackadaisical trade performance in the last couple of years would not recur.

In order to get the ground reality on the foreign trade front to dispel any doubts, Business Line spoke to the affable and articulate Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Mr Jyotiraditya M. Scindia.

Not the one to countenance the canard that UPA-II is less rooting for reforms, Mr Scindia contends with zeal hat "Reform is very much a part of our agenda and it is very important to look at process as opposed to events.

Just because a one year milestone has been crossed does not mean that a couple of reforms should have taken place.

The process is very much on. Just as in UPA first five-year tenure, we will have major milestones and high economic pace to make development much-more inclusive and reform-oriented agenda in the current tenure".

Following are the excerpts from Mr Scindia's own words:

"We have done commendably on the export front in an environment of extreme volatility -- last 18 months had seen probably the most turbulent time that the world had witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Keeping in mind the context of the turbulence that we have encountered, our policy is starting with the pump-priming of the economy with the stimulus package of Rs 1.90 lakh crore, followed by our FTP, which we have announced August of last year, where we looked at the new direction that need to be given for exports -- away from our traditional markets to much more developing markets such as Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Asia, I think all these steps combined have been able to close at $176 billion for 09-10, which is down by 4.7 per cent over the previous year.

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com We will be able to post upwards of 8% GDP growth this fiscal, says Scindia

"Why can't we not think of setting up of vocational training centres, ITIs within these SEZs," Scindia said at the CII annual conference here.

He said people trained in those institutes could get employment in the special economic zones (SEZs).

SEZs have emerged as major sources of employment in the recent years with about five lakh people getting jobs in the tax-free zones. The government has given formal approval for setting up 580 SEZs, of which 105 are operational.

Scindia further said there was need to create employment opportunities in the rural India as it would go a long way in checking migration towards cities

A task force headed by minister of state for commerce and industry Jyotiraditya Scindia is expected to submit its report by June-end.

Simplification of procedures and transparency issues need to be addressed. Cost arising out of inefficiencies in the process can be avoided, Scindia said at a Ficci function here today. He further said the transaction cost estimated to be $12-15 billion by the task force, works out to 7-8 per cent of total export value.

"Even if we are able to work on and reduce up to 30 per cent of these costs, we will be rendering a huge benefit to the exporting community," he said.

The cost in India is almost double than in China and Malaysia. He said members of the group would soon visit Denmark and Singapore to study their procedures.

The commerce ministry will work closely with other ministries of finance, agriculture, shipping, textiles and environment for execution of its strategy, he said.

The country's exports grew by 34.8 per cent to $16.09 billion in February compared to a year ago period. Exporters face aggressive competition from China and other developing countries for their pie of the developed markets.

"It would be better if the State Government holds one-to-one meeting with the industrialists for setting up industries in the state instead of holding investors meet," Scindia told reporters.

The Union Minister also advised the government to ponder over the fact that why Nano car project went to Gujarat instead of MP when better facilities were also available at Pithampur Industrial area near Indore.

One of the reasons behind industrialists not coming to Madhya Pradesh could be state's law and order situation, he said, adding besides, state has no proper infrastructure to create model industrial atmosphere.

Exporters hit by the world trade contraction can look forward to a helping hand from the government, which is determined to speed up steps to cut their transaction costs--by $10-15 billion or 7-10% of the value of India's merchandise exports--the minister of state for commerce and industry Jyotiraditya Scindia told FE. A plan of action is underway for reducing the time lost by exporters in the maze of bureaucracy and virtual monetisation of the time so saved, the minister said in an interview.

A committee chaired by Scindia and comprising multiple agencies that exporters interact with would work across various verticals to identify areas where transaction costs can be cut. "We are in the process of doing in-depth studies," Scindia said.

The agencies that an exporter needs to approach between his signing a contractual agreement with the buyer abroad and delivery of goods are multifarious (the DGFT, Customs, airport and seaport authorities, railways, export promotion councils, state government departments, quality control agencies, banks and the like.). Hundreds of documents are to be produced before these agencies. It takes 25-40 days for the exporter to complete the procedures, not to mention the "additional monetary costs" (read corruption).

In recent months, as part of the measures to obviate multiple clearances, the government introduced a system of electronic data exchange between DGFT and Customs in certain sectors.

The system would be fully functional, by including all agencies and sectors, by June 2010, an official source said.

The recommendations of the Scindia committee would go much beyond these and produce a list of doable actions in the next 2-3 months to facilitate fast-track clearances and simplified procedures.

Source: Financial Express By Ronojoy Banerjee Govt to fast-track export clearances: Scindia

The minister informed that the Central Government is implementing three sub-schemes under Indian Leather Development Programme (ILDP) during the 11th Five Year Plan to meet the requirement of manpower in the leather industry.

<center></center>

"The government is implementing a sub-scheme, "Integrated Development of Leather Sector" (IDLS) with an outlay of Rs. 253.43 crore  under ILDP during the 11th Five Year Plan period," release said.

Under the sub-scheme, assistance are provided to leather units in the form of investment grant at a rate of 30% for Small Scale Industries (SSI) and 20% for non-SSI upto Rs. 50 lakh. Assistance above Rs 50 lakhs is provided at a rate of 20% within ceiling of Rs. 2 crore.

Testing facilities for the Leather Industry exist at Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai and its Regional Centres at Jallandhar, Kolkata and Kanpur; Footwear Design and Development Institute at Noida and Fursatganj; and Testing Centre in the Footwear Component  Park at Chennai.

For addressing the environmental issues of the Leather Industry, the Central Government is implementing a sub-scheme "Environment Initiatives" with an outlay of Rs. 200 crore under ILDP during the 11th Five Year Plan period.

"After a review of the working of the various incentives, a decision for any kind of change in the stimulus measures for the sectors coming out from the impact of global financial meltdown will be taken after March 31," Scindia told reporters in New Delhi.

India's merchandise exports have been showing signs of recovery for the third straight month after declining 13 successive months since October 2008 on account of the global economic meltdown.

But while some sectors like tobacco, spices, man-made yarn, gems, chemicals and jewellery have shown satisfactory export growth in the past few months, textiles, handicrafts, carpet, engineering goods are still reeling under the impact of global crisis.

The government had provided over Rs. 1.80 lakh crore as part of three stimulus packages to prop up the economy against global downturn. Also, the Commerce Ministry had given enhanced assistance for exploring new markets to exporters and extension of duty refund scheme till December 2010, besides other sops.

Source: smetimes.tradeindia.com Govt likely to reshuffle exports stimulus: Scindia

"A decision for any kind of change in stimulus measures for the sectors coming out from the impact of the global financial meltdown will be taken after 31 March," minister of state for commerce and industry Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday, after a function organised by Assocham.

While tobacco, spices, man-made yarn, gems, chemicals and jewellery have shown satisfactory export growth in the past few months, textiles, handicrafts, carpet and engineering goods are still reeling under the impact of the global crisis, he said.

The ministry had given enhanced assistance to exporters to explore new markets and an extension of duty refund scheme till December 2010, besides other sops.

On budget expectations, Scindia said he had requested finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to at least retain the allocation of Rs3,652 crore for the ministry, as was done in the previous year.

After declining for 13 straight months, exports grew 18.2 per cent in November. Growth stood at 9.3 per cent and 11.5 per cent in December and January respectively.

"...decision for any kind of change in the stimulus measures for the sectors coming out from the impact of global financial meltdown will be taken after March 31," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said at an Assocham function.

While tobacco, spices, man-made yarn, gems, chemicals and jewellery have shown satisfactory export growth in the past few months, textiles, handicrafts, carpet, engineering goods are still reeling under the impact of global crisis.

The Ministry had given enhanced assistance for exploring new markets to exporters and extension of duty refund scheme till December 2010, besides other sops.

Source: beta.profit.ndtv.com Stimulus reshuffle after review in April

Scindia also discussed possibilities of developing further cooperation in high tech areas including IT, Bio-technology, and Nano technology to take advantage of mutual core competencies. The two sides also exchanged views on the global challenge posed by terrorism and ongoing cooperation between the two countries in the area of homeland security. Both the leaders agreed to emphasise on cooperation in the application of science & technology particularly in areas related to agriculture and water management.

Later Scindia met Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade & Labour Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.The Minister underlined the fact that R&D constitutes a fundamental basis for core competence in multiple industrial areas for both countries. Scindia proposed that a practical step to enhance high tech cooperation would be to set up a Government to Government joint technology incubator initiative in India with representation from both sides including the private sector.

He also met leading Israeli industrialists to discuss promotion of trade and commerce between the two countries and delivered a Keynote Address on "Indian Economy in the Next Decade - an Engine for Growth" at a seminar jointly organised by the Israeli Export and International Cooperation Institute and the Embassy of India.

The bilateral trade figure for the last fiscal (2008-09) was US $ 3.55 billion with exports from India amounting to US $ 1.5 and imports to India amounting to US$ 2.09 billion.  Bilateral trade increased at a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent over the last five years.