The Commerce Ministry is working on an action plan for boosting performance in five services sectors and will soon start inter-ministerial consultations for inputs.
The sectors that would be covered are logistics, IT, telecom, health-care and tourism, entertainment & creative arts, Commerce Secretary, S.R. Rao, said at the Services Conclave jointly organised by the CII and Centre for WTO Studies.
The action plan will focus on capacity development and regulation and institutional evolution in the identified sectors, Rao said.
Stating that the services sector in the country was over-regulated and many of the regulations flowed from Parliament Acts, Rao said that there was a need to bring about changes in these.
“If we want barriers to stay in our country, we cannot expect our trading partners to open up their markets for us,” he said.
Rao pointed out that foreigners are not allowed to practice law or become doctors in the country, which was not in sync with the increasing globalised world.
Once the road-map is finalised, which would take at least a month, the Commerce Ministry would work on implementing it by approaching the Union Cabinet and Parliament, wherever required.
“We would not just require the Cabinet’s nod for certain decisions, but may also need to get Parliamentary approval for legislative changes,” Commerce Additional Secretary Rajiv Kher pointed out.
Services exports have increased from $ 8.9 billion in 1997, to over $ 110 billion in 2010 and $140 billion in the last fiscal. India’s share in world services export, too, has gone up from 1 per cent in 2000 to about 3.5 per cent at present. However, about 80 per cent of services exports from India is in the IT/ITES sector and most of it is exported to just a few markets including the US and the UK.
The road-map will focus on diversifying the country’s export basket for services and also identifying more potential markets.