T N Ninan: Addressing the deficit

More effective promotion of domestic manufacturing, mining can reduce trade deficit in key sectors

So what ails India’s exports, which have been stagnant these last five years even as the deficit in merchandise trade has remained large, despite the fall in oil prices? As was noted last week, India has a surplus in the trade in agricultural items as well as in services trade (mostly software). It also has a net surplus when it comes to financial transfers, like remittances from non-residents. Among the deficit areas, as is well known, the biggest is in energy (oil, gas and coal), which accounted in 2015-16 for well over half the total deficit in goods trade of