13 - Concluding observations

Summary

Our analysis of India's export performance and policies in the 1960s revealed that the process of export growth was influenced by a variety of domestic and external factors. Given the diverse commodity composition and the complicated structure of policies, generalisations are no doubt difficult. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify the salient features of the Indian export experience during the period under study.

Export performance

The relative importance of the different factors underlying the trends in India's principal exports varied considerably as between commodities. External factors played a significant role in the export performance of some industries, while domestic factors and policies were crucial in others. It need hardly be stressed that aggregative explanations are not representative of the actual experience. However, they are necessary in order to arrive at any policy conclusions. Thus it is worthwhile to group the major factors affecting India's export performance in accordance with the approach outlined at the beginning, and to comment on their significance.

The impact of world demand

The rapid growth in world import demand for cashew kernels, iron ore, chemicals and engineering goods was certainly one of the factors which stimulated the exports of these commodities from India. On the other hand, many of India's major exports such as jute manufactures, cotton textiles, tea, tobacco, manganese ore and mica were faced by a very slowly growing world market.