Indian government announces measures to reform shipping industry
The Dollar Business Bureau The Indian government has taken a slew of measures to help revive India’s shipping industry and more reforms are likely to be announced soon to help speed up the transformation. India’s merchandise trade is heavily dependent on seaborne trade and ports. According to the Shipping Ministry, India’s shipping industry accounts for around 95% of India’s total merchandise trade by volume and 70% in terms of value. Meanwhile, total cargo traffic in India is forecast to grow to around 1,758 million metric tonnes (MMT) by 2017, up about 92% from around 911.5 MMT in 2012. However, complicated procedures, lack of connectivity and slow paperwork has prevented the shipping industry from transforming itself and meet growing needs. ...
India slips 4 places to 126 in World Banks 2015 Foreign Trade rankings
Bidhu Bhushan Palo | @TheDollarBiz India has slipped four points to the 126th rank in World Bank’s “Trading Across Borders” indicator in the 2015 Ease of Doing Business report released this week. Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea hold the top three spots respectively. Launched in 2002, the Doing Business (DB) is a World Bank project which aims to provide measures of business regulations (which includes foreign trade) and their enforcement across 189 economies at different levels. DB measures three broad parameters (documentation, time and cost per container) to rank countries in the “Trading Across Borders” indicator. It excludes tariffs, time and cost for sea transport associated with exporting and importing a standard shipment of goods by sea transport. According ...
