Rising imports? Who cares!

In a departure from standard practice, only Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) Anup K Pujari released the trade data for June. Commerce Secretary S R Rao also usually attends these routine press conferences, and Pujari must have sorely missed him this time. That's because he had to face persistent questions on rising imports to which he struggled to find answers. Eventually, he returned a reply to the effect that he is "Director General of Foreign Trade and not Director General Exports, so the rise in imports does not matter to me", which is surely a risky statement at a time like this.