India's imports of sensitive items, including foodgrains and milk products, has gone up by 10.8% to Rs 46,109 crore during the April-November of the current fiscal, from Rs 41,621 crore a year-ago.
Foodgrains' imports soared to Rs 223.94 crore during the first eight months of this fiscal from a mere Rs 17.29 crore and in the year-ago period, according to the latest official data.
Items such as foodgrains, automobiles, milk and beverages fall in the sensitive category and the imports of these are monitored by the government to see if there is any adverse impact on the domestic industry.
Milk and dairy products' imports increased to Rs 678.66 crore and that of automobiles to Rs 1,426.29 crore during the period under review from Rs 158.42 crore and Rs 693.36 crore, respectively in the year-ago period.
During April-November 2010-11, imports of items such as alcoholic beverages and rubber too, increased by 60.4% and 101.3%, respectively.
As per the data, the increase in imports of edible oils was 11% to Rs 17,978.59 crore over the year ago period. imports of products of small-scale industries like umbrella, locks, toys and glassware, too, went up by 59.5% to Rs 992.77 crore over the same period last year.
"The increase in edible oil imports is mainly due to substantial increase in imports of soyabean crude oil," it said.
However, imports of pulses, and cotton and silk contracted by 20.3% and 27.3% during the period. No reason was disclosed for the contraction.
Food inflation is hovering at 11.49%, week ended February 12, due to spurt in vegetable prices.
Imports of sensitive items amounted to 4.5% of the country's total imports during the period.
The gross imports of all commodities during April-November 2010-11 was Rs 10,14,960 crore compared to Rs 8,59,871 crore during the same period last year.
Imports of sensitive items from countries like the US, UK, China, Korea, Argentina, Germany, Thailand, New Zealand have gone up, while those from Myanmar, Brazil and Canada decreased.
