Prospects of Agricultural Exports of India: A Composite Index Approach

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the global economy has gathered an unconventional momentum. The most significant transformation that took place in the world economy is in the field of trade. The new liberalised multilateral trade arrangements under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), emergence of plethora of new states out of the Russian Empire and unison of many European currencies under a single umbrella of Eurocurrency are the significant developments of the 1990s. The agriculture sector spearheading the economic development of India has undergone a remarkable transformation from the food-deficit situation to the exportable surplus generation after meeting the domestic requirements of the large population. The development policy of India registered thorough change from a physical control regime to a market-driven one. The export promotion came to be regarded as the critical factor in India's economic development. During 1985 to 1992, three long-term export-import (EXIM) policies (1985-88, 1988-90 and 199092) were announced, of which the last was the most export-oriented (Sen and Das, 1992). As a consequence export-led growth began with the announcement of EXIM policy for 2000-2001.