Foreign trade of India
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a document written by an anonymous sailor from Alexandria around 100 CE, describing trade between countries, including India.
In 1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut (modern day Kozhikode in Kerala), and was the first European to ever sail to India.
[7] Pedro Álvares Cabral left for India in 1501 and established Portuguese trading posts in Calicut and Cochin (modern day Kochi), returning to Portugal in 1501 with pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, and cloves.
[8] Prior to the 1991 economic liberalisation, India was a closed economy due to the average tariffs exceeding 200 percent and the extensive quantitative restrictions on imports.
[9] Reforms in India in the 1990s and 2000s aimed to increase international competitiveness in various sectors, including auto components, telecommunications, software, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, research and development, and professional services.
These reforms included reducing import tariffs, deregulating markets, and lowering taxes, which led to an increase in foreign investment and high economic growth.
[13] In September, India's prominent services industry experienced an acceleration in growth, buoyed by robust demand in the sector.
[20] India is the world's largest provider of generic medicines by volume, with a 20% share of total global pharmaceutical exports.
[21] Indian pharmaceutical products are exported to various regulated markets including the US, UK, European Union and Canada.
Despite the dependence on imports, India has developed sufficient processing capacity over the years to produce different petroleum products.
[35] Similarly, US automobile company, General Motors had announced its plans to export about 50,000 cars manufactured in India by 2011.
[36] In September 2009, Ford Motors announced its plans to set up a plant in India with an annual capacity of 250,000 cars, for US$500 million.
[39] In 2009, India (0.23m) surpassed China (0.16m) as Asia's fourth largest exporter of cars after Japan (1.77m), Korea (1.12m) and Thailand (0.26m).
[40] In July 2010, The Economic Times reported that PSA Peugeot Citroën was planning to re-enter the Indian market and open a production plant in Andhra Pradesh that would have an annual capacity of 100,000 vehicles, investing €700M in the operation.
As of 2019, it is assembling and selling an off-road vehicle (Mahindra Roxor; not certified for road use) in limited numbers in the U.S.[43] It is also sold in Canada.
Since the demand for automobiles in recent years is directly linked to overall economic expansion and rising personal incomes, industry growth will slow if the economy weakens.
