DGFT chief transferred to Interstate Council
In a major bureaucratic reshuffle carried out by the Central Government on Friday, the Director General of Foreign Trade Pravir Kumar has been appointed as Secretary of Interstate Council Secretariat. Centre has issued transfer order for sixteen IAS officers posted in various departments. A 1982 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, Kumar served various departments in the Central and State Governments, which include UP Agro Industries Corporation, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Development Commissioner of Kandla and Dahej SEZs (2010-12) in Gujarat, under Ministry of Commerce and Industry. As DGFT chief, alongside highlighting government's commitment on ensuring ease of doing business, Pravir Kumar said in many cases that ‘India is passing through a challenging phase, particularly in exports.’ Pravir Kumar oversaw a forward looking FTP. “In Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, most importantly, we have removed all the confusion and overlapping that existed in the previous FTP. Minus some miracles, the new FTP has what it takes to make India an unsinkable titanic on the high, trading seas,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Dollar Business. According to him, the new FTP was appreciated the most, that made lives of exporters simpler, that they don’t have to run around now, and that the rewards will truly travel across to persons who have earned them. Encouraging Indian exporters to expand their base overseas, Pravir Kumar, in many cases, urged Indian traders to focus on traditional markets. If we suddenly stop worrying about these markets, then even if we have gains in emerging markets, our decline in exports to traditional markets may more than offset the positive gains in new markets. The reason being that traditional markets work on a much higher base, he told The Dollar Business. Through FTP 2015-20, Pravir Kumar brought in key reforms in foreign trade processes, which include simplification of procedures, digitization, e-governance, merger of schemes, reduction of forms, self-certification, etc., to facilitate our exports and take our export competitiveness to the next level. Interview of Pravir Kumar, published in May 2015 issue, The Dollar Business Magazine: The new FTP was worth the wait of a year!
August 29, 2015 | 6:24pm IST.
to success.