Agriculture growth a flop because of Planning?

India of 2010 is not the India of 1947.

In India, which has a population of over 1.2 billion today, does it have sufficient grannery to feed the mouths? Has our Below Poverty Line estimate suffices the requirement of food for the downtrodden. The much proclaimed Food Guarantee Bill, will it create a harvest of mouthful for these have-nots? India is looking forward to a thrillion economy; in these, how much these dastard and laggard people, earn to lead a hand-to-mouth livelihood. Has Malthusian theory come true in India?

When the First Five Year Plan gave supremacy of Agriculture, and the Green Revolution that followed, today’s plan (XI Five Year Plan) has hopes of achieving 4% growth even though the Plan delivered a flat 0.20% during the mid-term analysis of the XI Plan. The Plan, gives scant outlay to agriculture, does not evolve Schemes to better productivity in agri-based products, and in the least pretexts, and look as an instant solution to Imports. It even imported Public Loan 480 from America, the rice not fit enough even for rats! The Rice, and wheat stored in the Food Corporation of India mainly meant for distribution to the BPL families, is fodder for rats. Food Security Bill with Crores of Rupees of public money can be advantageous only if the food reached the poor, downtrodden. In India, for agriculture subsidy, kerosene oil subsidy (for lighting, cooking), fertiliserz, etc the middle-men knocked off a chunk of money. The Plan architect Montek Singh Aluwaliah, and the agriculture expert Dr Swaminathan are polls apart in perceiving what is best for agriculture. Our Economists theorize but often theory in the alter of reality never meet; we have massive outlay for Agriculture, that is funds spent in the name of agriculture. Hydro electric projects drowned the fertile lands, and doused the agricultural yield. Conversion of agricultural land for development, a mantra of the Globalization concept, has devastated agricultural development and growth. In Kerala, where Coconut was a plantation has become a home stud crop thanks to Kerala Land Reforms.
First area of concern is Agricultural Credit. Credit flow has risen sharply, Dr B K Chaturvedi, Dy Governor will explain eloquently. The Credit was channelised through RRBs, commercial Banks in rural areas. Commercial banks gave loans to SIDBI and other institutions that supported agriculture. Agricultural loans were characterized as priority sector loans. In the last decade or so, loans were given to Corporates, tractor manufacturers, fertilizer companies, advances worth many Crores, but they were shown as priority sector advances to agriculture. A disturbing future of the agriculture Credit is astronamal growth of agricultural finance that is urban in nature. The share of agricultural Credit supplied by urban and metropolitan bank branches in India increased from 16.3% to 30.7%. . One third of the agricultural Credit was given by metropolitan and urban banks while the share of the rural, semi-urban, RRB got reduced to less than 50%. One question is pertinent- Corporate/agricultural firms get Credit over Rs 1 cr in aggregate per borrower, but shown in Bank books as agriculture Credit (2007 onwards). Is it not an institutional make-up in the loan portfolio to show that Credit for agricultural is growing. Fertilizer subsidy, one would like to ask the question. How much have fertilizer companies grown their declared profits, and what catalytic role they played in improving agricultural productivity? In the state of Maharashtra alone, rural branches provided 25.7% credit towards agriculture while metropolitan bank branches gave a credit for agricultural sector @ 42.6% of the total agricultural credit in Maharashtra in 2008. The actual farmer in the villages, whose financial needs are sparse, would benefit the least from the present Agricultural Credit Policy which are pocked by Corporate, partnership firms having as allied enterprise, agriculture, etc. Reliable data is available to show that what is termed as agriculture Credit may have little to do with agriculture! Shocking!

The Second area of which government is least concerned is the irrigational source. Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Dy Chairman of Planning Commission will blame the rains for failure in Rabi crops or poor show of kharif crops. Poor monsoon, sluggish agriculture growth. No agriculturalist is concerned about average rainfall data but he looks for daily rainfall during the agricultural season for his survival. The Planners presuppose that the fluctuation of monsoon on a year-on-year basis is the problem of agricultural diminishing returns. It is not the total rainfall or levels in reservoirs that matter to majority. It is the rain on time. Dry crops might not require lot of Water or expensive irrigation facilities but timely rain. Drought related measures to temporarily assist may be useful but strategic and long term measures need to be taken. Here, our planners have failed lock, stock, and barrel. Irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating due to poor maintenance of irrigation systems. The overuse of Water is being covered by over pumping aquifers, but as they are falling by foot of ground water yield, this is limited resource. It is unscientific approach of the Planning Commission for the improper use of water, irrigation planning.

We suggest some steps: a. Agriculture, adaptation measures in rural sector should receive major institutional/financial support for evolving policies for implementation of specific programmes in the short- to- long term. (b) Measures to manage water resources on an annual cycle basis and it should be stored and distributed; some times long spell of rainfall above the normal, some times successive draught hamper the storage of water policy. The water storage level has to be decentralized to a sub basin level. Storing water on surface and underground in order to build storages for later years need to be planned. (c) Focusing on dry land agriculture and soil moisture. 75 million hectares are under food grain production in the dry land mode (d) Policy interventions: lack of saving the water or improving water productivity is actually leading to wastage. But not one rupee is in the XI Plan is allotted; (ii) incentives to use chemical fertilizers may actually induce soil degradation and put farmers of dry land farming in disadvantage(iii) Poor farmers, rural farmers do not require Rs 1 cr capital loan; the metropolitan banks need not support agriculture. Let it to be supported by NABARD (by forming micro finance companies run by honest NGOs), RRB, and Rural Banks. Stop writing off of loans, stop free power, and re-look at the clients who have agricultural loans.

Let Planning Commission answer. Let RBI do some introspection in respect of Credits to agricultural farmers? Let the Agriculture Minister look at the agriculture in its total prespective. Let the Controller and Audit General, look at Crores of Rupees of money not getting into the Agricultural arena? Let the opposition ask pertinent questions and do some honest homework. Let our newspapers and electronic media look at the agricultural issue in germane and file a faithful and accurate report. All these institutions are sleeping. Only when rats enter the FCI godowns and eat wheat, the matter comes to national attention?

Petroleum companies taking us for a ride?

Indian petroleum companies are shedding crocodile tears for no apparent reason.

Myth: 1] Indian oil Corporation has gone on record and stated that it incurred a loss of Rs 3,388.89 Cr in the first quarter of current fiscal as against a nett profit of Rs 3,682.83 Cr recorded in the first quarter of last year.

2] The Company made a net profit of Rs 10,000 Cr in 2009-10 and the Dy Chairman, Plg Commission states that this is inclusive of the 50% subsidies provided by the Government to the tune of Rs 20,000 Cr during 2009-10.
3] It is a fact that Government revised the prices of petroleum products by Rs 3/- in the last quarter of 2009-10, the benefit of which would have cascaded to 2010-11, and in the second instance, another adhoc increase, just a month ago, raising the price of petrol by Rs 3.50/litre, diesel by Rs 2.00, LPG Cylinder by Rs 35/-, Rs 3/per litre for kerosene. Kerosene is mostly used by the Below the Poverty Line families.

4] Oil companies contend that they incur $ 3 barrel on processing of every barrel of Crude oil. This year (April-June, 2010), they state that their gross refining margin (GRM) was Rs 7.36 per barrel.

5] The oil Companies admit that ‘refining margins were low due to inventory losses on oil as oil prices had come down compared to the closing stock(April 1).

While oil companies put forward such arguments to prove the acute under pricing in the import of crude, and the under recovery caused by the sale of oil, which is only 50% subsidized by the Government, they argue for increased prices from the consumer. Simple Law of demand and Supply pricing.

Reality: 1] One should go into the mathematical calculations of the purchase of Crude oil, quantity of Crude oil purchased, what is the demand: supply position of Petroleum products in India, how is the pricing done in the existing circumstances, and when there has been no appreciable increase in the petroleum prices in the international market, why are the Petroleum Companies in India are on a song, and hungry for more revenue? Now, how could the profit of Rs 3,682.82 Cr during the last first fiscal, turn into a loss, assuming that Government did not part with Rs 1,694.45 Cr as 50% of its share in the loss. This is only a notional adjustment in the balance sheet. Loss is a loss, whether it is subsidized by people or Government.

Dr B K Chaturvedi Committee went into the issue of usage of Kerosene oil in the Country. His findings have been documented. The study revealed that the use of kerosene has come down from 40% to 51% used earlier, only 1% is used for cooking purposes; out of 39% PDS Kerosene, 18% finds a way to the black market to adulterate diesel, 24% of rural consumption used for lighting is in villages where there is 100% electrification. Only 40% of the kerosene finds use. The rest is not used. Government’s subsidy for kerosene is Rs 17.92/a litre. What happens to the kerosene which is said to be distributed? The distribution is only in paper. Why can’t the Planning Commission do a detailed study to unearth the truth?

2] The truth is Petroleum companies’ profits are notched. They are virtual profits. How can any body say that factoring government subsidies, Companies make profit? These are monopoly Companies who are answerable to nobody.

3] During the year, the Government revised the petroleum prices at least on two occasions. Yet, why should there be a steep loss. Is it operational efficiency? Seepage? Misue?

4) How come such a vast change in refining? Has the government gone into the pricing of refining? In the first instance, they use the term cost of processing of Crude oil, and in the second case, they say gross refining margin. What does these two mean? Let the Economists of North bloc ponder over this aspect

5) The oil inventory showed it held excess stock. This stock had a price that was higher than the prevailing price as on 1 April 2010. The Oil Companies also admit that negatives on account of exchange losses due to Rupee depreciation and higher provisioning of bonds(the Government bonds that was given in lieu of 50% of the under recoveries). If they contend that these anomalies must be factored into the price of petroleum products, it is not fair and decent price determination.
.
Due to dollar depreciation, the invoice value of crude import should have come down, as the prices are paid in dollars. There is a comfortable cushion in this. In India, you are selling in Rupees. You don’t link the price to the Dollar. Hence twin advantage. Please use the same matrix for comparison.

The Company argues that the nett revenue lost by IOC was Rs 11,013.58 Cr. It was compensated Rs 3,671.26 Cr from upstream firms like Oil & Gas Corporation, GAIL and Oil India. Consequent to non revision of retail selling price in line with the international prices, net under realization was Rs 7,341.59 Cr. The usual practice was that the Government reimbursed Rs 20,000 Cr for under recoveries of IOC, BP, and HP during 2010-11.

The oil Companies agree that the net sales during 2010-11 went up by 23% to Rs 71,257 Cr. IOC alone had 17.254 million tones of petroleum products against 16.703 million tones duing the corresponding period (April-June 2009) while it exported 1.058 million Tonnes. The Refineries refined 13.278 million tones of Crude oil against 12.466 million tones a year ago during March-June of 2010 and 2009. The refineries are said to have clamped Rs 6.50 per litre as charges.

The oil Companies do not do any homework and incapable of working an alternate strategy. One aspect that Planning Commission should look into the capacity of motor cars being sold in India during a year, and whether the present infrastructure has capacity to withstand them. Secondly, if the demand for petroleum products could be brought down through planning, it will have a cascading effect on the supply and pricing. Merely to boost the manufacturing output, if uneven growth in manufacture of motor cars is made, the infrastructure would break down. It is good to draw a road map to build 7,000 km of highway Roads. But the wear and tear, its optimum capacity and longevity are factors that needed to be factored in. It can’t be utopian. Banks find it easy to provide vehicle loan as the motorcar is a tangible asset. But whatever incremental growth that is achieved should be practical and long withstanding otherwise, it will become Robinson Crusoe paradox situation.

Kochi calling- Winds of change?

A unifying theme will be the tension between two values; that of being scientific (scientificity) and that of relevance. These need not- and should not- be in conflict; an important goal for economics in the future is to bring them into better harmony. Circulating of the wagons was the creation of an outer circle of critics and dissidents: economists who thought of themselves as alternatives or heterodox. The outer circle, which contains many serious and creative thinkers, has continued to grow and pose serious challenges to the mainstream emphasis, assumptions, methods and conclusions.



Indian economy was opened up to the World 18 years ago. Tariffs were reduced, trade restrictions went down, and investment flows were allowed. This was the economic paradigm of 1991. India moved to progressive, transparent trade regime which stimulated strong increase in trade and investment.

Addressing a CII meeting, Mr Suresh Krishna, well known industrialist, recalled a visit to Wall-mart to know which are the Indian made items were on the shelf. He moved from rows to rows. He could find nothing. At last, in one of the rows, he found a Door mat costing$2 .40 cents (when 1$= Rs 13/-). That was the only Indian product that was sold in Wal-mart in the 90s. We can conclude, even ere liberalization, Coir Door Mats were popular in the United States. In the MBA syllabus, Door mat syndrome was a popular expression. In the entrance to any house, there was a door mat which was vividly used by the visitor, to dust his shoes, and then after entering, the services rendered by the door mat were forgotten. Many people use, but no recognition, that was door mat syndrome. In Kerala, almost 153 years ago, the coir industry took its formative birth, and grew itself as a traditional industry, and it did not mature as a vibrant modern industry. It is still traditional with obsolete machines.

India’s rates of taxation was the highest with each Finance Minister priding himself as an expert whose tally of taxation of different items should be higher than that of his predecessor. You have Personal Income Tax, Services Tax, professional Tax, property Tax, Motor Vehicles Tax, indirect taxes, and what not. The Central Excise tariff is difficult to comprehend, because the Finance Minister imposes Central Excise levy, but it becomes 0% because of a notification which has been issued by the Commissionrate of CE. There are some rates which are reduced by notification. There are certain items out of the tax net, but suddenly brought in. It is very difficult for the trader, to be a master of Central Excise formalities, procedures, and taxation. The Central Excise tariff codes are aligned to the ITC (HS) Codes at the six digit level, and Customs Tariff codes are aligned at the 4 digit level. In the 8 digit level ITC(HS) Code which is used by the shippers for shipping the goods, there are for some items, no entries, so they use the ‘Others’ category or the residuary category. Customs officials, do not part with the incentives meant for that product, because, ‘Others’ are not defined. The legal text of the Tariff consists of Sections, Chapters, Headings, Subheadings, subheading notes and the General Interpretative Rules (GIR). The Indian Customs Tariff has 21 sections and 99 chapters. A Section is a grouping together of a number of Chapters which codify a particular class of goods. The Section notes explain the scope of chapters / headings, etc. The Chapters consist of chapter notes, brief description of commodities arranged at four digit and six digit levels. Every four digit code is called a ‘heading’ and every six digit code is called a ‘subheading’. The 4 digit and 6 digit tariffs are approved by the World Customs Organization which meets in Brussels periodically, and there is an overhaul once in five years. All amendments are carried out by consensus. Product, sub product, spin off product, which are known by different names in different areas come under some other description which makes the shipper write a different product name which is universally accepted. When Customs goes for random checking, they give some other name to describe the product which is not in the Tariff, Harmonized Code of Nomenclature, nor in the ITC (HS) Codes. If these products are ‘Plant exports’, then lot of problems arise in the Port of Entry. The customs asks for innumerable identification documents. Transaction cost on account of delay increases making Indian goods uncompetitative due to higher prices.
Kochi Port grew by 17% in the first quarter of the current fiscal (2010-11) while overall cargo traffic went up 23% of the first quarter of the previous year. Container traffic at Kochi was 2.90 lakh TEUs for the whole of 2009-10. Inspite of the dip in the world economy’s growth, mostly contributed by America’s recession, Indian business was slightly affected and container trade grew by 4.5% over the figures of 2008-9. The Country’s container trade volumes have been growing at a steady 16.73 per cent in the first quarter. Volume for the first quarter of the previous year was movement of 1.8 million TEUs. The impetus for the container volume trade has been largely due to the fact that Kerala state was the only export state that achieved positive growth at 9.2%. Haryana came a poor second with 0.1% growth. In 2008-9, there has been 100% growth, with spices, cashew, marine products, engineering goods, coir, coconut, and exports from CSEZ registering impressive growth. It is a matter of great pride, they were able to continue the same impressive trend into 2009-10. The fist quarter has seen spectacular growth in spices exports to touch Rs 1025.30 Cr (against Rs 788 Cr) registering 30% in Rupee terms and 42% in dollar terms. Against last year’s figures of 81,950 tonnes, the volume exported was 1, 06,315 tonnes, a straight forward growth of 30%. The Port authorities have been requesting the Commerce Ministry to allow at least 10 lakh tonnes of import of palm oil to be routed through Kochi, so that the movement of containers would grow at a higher pace.

IMF is of the view that India’s growth in 2010-11 is predicted at 9.4% though our Finance Ministry and Planning Commission are more cautious and predict an economic growth of 8.5%. The opening of Vallarpadam Container will give greater impetus to the Cochin port in increasing the level of its operations. The optimum capacity of the Vallarpadam Container terminal is expected to be 30, 00,000 TEUs, when the birth length will be 1800 meters and dwarft will be 14.5 meters enabling ships having up to 8,000 TEUs to call at the terminal. The first phase is conceived to have a handling capacity of 1.4 million TEUs.

The terminal project cannot rest on its oars as the Cochin channel needs more dredging, taking care that the dredging do not create any Sea erosion and soil erosion. The land at Fort Kochi, Wellingdon Island, Vallarpadam, are susceptible to coastal erosion as the natural break waters off Cochin sea coast do not have resistance to the sea pressure.

It has been a dream for many Cochinites that mother ships call here, rather than feeder vessels. The Cochin Port was devised to receive passenger traffic as well. Apart for independent oil terminal, Cochin port can be a vantage Port, if more attention is bestowed to it by the authorities concerned. South India’s cargo business is slated to be nearly 2 million TEUs a year, which represents 25% of India’s trade.

With the heralding of Vallarpadam Container terminal, Cochin people believe that they have never to look back. The old days of aroma, pepper, spices, coconut, marine products will again beseech Kochi along with the winds of change.

Kochi Port, harbinger for Progress

We talk about Imports and Exports. We talk about shipping capacities. We also talk about containerization. Seldom is break bulk cargo shipped, as the modern ships are not built to carry break bulk cargo. Mother ships call at various Ports. There are voyages to Europe and United States once in a week. As transshipment Ports were not available, the Indian cargo bound for Europe/America had to go through hub Ports like Sri Lanka and/or Dubai, and then they are dispatched to Europe/USA. What happens in such situations is, the turn round time for cargo diversion is more, making shipping costs high, and the time schedule in respect of receipt of Cargo also about a month. The feeder vessels who make journey to and fro Colombo and/or Dubai, will be costlier compared to the shipping cost, if the merchandise is conveyed through a mother vessel. There is also no break off time at the hub Port.

Cochin Port is one of the best ports, an all-weather Port in India. With the fact that there were regular visitors through sea to Kerala from time in memorial, sea routes have been designed, mapped, and virtually available. Yet, in terms of income from cargo, why is Kochi lagging behind other Ports like Tuticorin, which was set up in 1985 only. People attribute it to the labour strife. But the fact of the matter is, labour strife is prevalent but the more important aspect is political apathy to the development of Cochin Port. The Port authorities are vexed that around 60 lakh tones of Palmoil is imported into India; but its import through Cochin port is banned. Inspite of the territorial ban, palm oil is abundantly available in Kerala. Why to deprieve revenue for the Cochin Port only. On what basis or logic? What is Cochin’s loss is Mangalore, Chennai and Tuticorin Ports gain.

Kerala historically is a neglected state. There have been top political bosses in Kerala who had a hand in running the Government of the day. Shri R K Shanmugham Shetty, the last Diwan of Cochin was India’s first Finance Minister. Another great name was that of Shri V K Krishna Menon, who was left and right hand of Mr Nehru.. Kerala had surplus electricity, which it sold to neighbouring states. The income from sale of electricity was a revenue head in the State budget. Kerala has 44 rivers, and water everywhere. Today, in terms of per capita consumption of water, it is in the 20th place, lower down to Rajasthan. The National Highway stretch is very bad compared to the stretches elsewhere.

Kerala’s more than 1.5 million educated have migrated to West Asia, Europe, America, etc. Around 0.7 million are working in different parts of India. According to Government’s statistics, of 20 million expats from India, 8 million are in West Asia (most of them from Kerala). The remittances from West Asia are higher in volume (no of transactions) while United States NRIs lead in absolute value. It is also a fact that India account for about 20% of remittances to developed countries. A recent phenomenon noticed is that the people abroad do not use the money in share market operations and real estate deals, though valuation are at such amazing levels, but invest in risk free capital guaranteed deposits in banks. That is why, despite the low interest rates offered, the Deposits in Banks are swelling. AP (IT) accounts for 22% of the remittance, Maharashtra has 15%. Kerala constitute the highest 55%. RBI acknowledges that $ 40.296 billion is the inward remittance which in value is higher than the Foreign Direct Investment in India.

New generation ships are not coming to India, least of all to Kerala. Newer ships coming on-line are able to hold 2/3 times as many TEUs as ships as old as a decade. New ships are faster, undertaking more voyages than the older ships. The number of containers sucked up by new ships is manifold compared to the older ones.

There are destination wise Ports. Ports which have imports and exports in tandem. Some are only Ports having export consignments. There are some other Ports which have import priority. There are Internal Container Depots and Container Freight stations. ICDs are beyond 100 Kms of a Port while CFS is set up adjoining the port also to avoid congestion. Now, if the two ways (Import/Export) from a Port is brisk, then the problem of availability of Containers is not a problem. Otherwise, the container gone, or the container that has been off loaded, has to be transferred in an empty state, for which railways charge freight, if by Road transport it is uneconomical. Ages of the containers are also going down. So, there can be a compartitative cost only if the net imported container trade in volume compares well with net export portion.

The problem of Ports is compounded by the interpretation of tertiary policing agency like the Customs, Central Excise, DGFT, etc. Indian government publishes tariffs and import tax rates, but they are not transparent. There is no single official publication that includes all necessary information. Importers must consult separate tariff and excise tax schedules as well as any applicable additional public notifications and notices to determine current tariff and tax rates. Furthermore, different classification nomenclatures for tariffs and excise taxes cause confusion, even though they are aligned at the 4 digit and 6 digit levels. . India continues to maintain a negative import list. The negative list is currently divided into three categories: (1) banned or prohibited items; (2) restricted items which require an import license; and (3) "canalized*" items, importable only by government trading monopolies subject to cabinet approval regarding timing and quantity. India has liberalized many restrictions on the importation of capital goods. The government allows imports of second-hand capital goods by actual users without license, provided the goods have a residual life.

The laws governing customs duties are the Customs Act, 1962 and the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The Customs Act, 1962 is the basic Statute which empowers, under Section 12, duties to be levied on goods imported into or exported from India. The categories of items and the rates of duties which are leviable have been specified in two schedules in the Customs Tariff Act, 1975. The first Schedule to the said Act specifies the various categories of import items in a systematic and well considered manner, in accordance with an international scheme of classification of internationally traded goods – termed ‘harmonized system of commodity classification’. Different rates of duties are prescribed by the legislature on different commodities/group of commodities mentioned in the first Schedule. The duties are levied both on specific and ad-valorem basis, while there are few cases where at times both specific and ad-valorem duties are also collected on imported items.

The Government of India applies discretionary customs valuation criteria to import transactions. U.S. exporters have reported that India’s customs valuation methodologies do not reflect actual transaction values and effectively raise tariff rates. Indian Customs requires extensive documentation. Processing delays often occur. In large part the delays are a consequence of India’s complex tariff structure and multiple exemptions, which may vary according to product, user, or specific Indian export promotion programme. The Government of India fixes minimum import prices for certain imported products.

The exporter/importer may have to study a lot of theory to do foreign trade. Our government, even though the export value had quadrupled from $ 44 billion in 2003-4 to US $ 185 billion in 2009-10, fails to give importance neither to the export sector nor improving its logistics and infrastructure.

KERALA has done it; export growth

Kerala is considered to a weakling when it comes to trade, industrialization and insipite of the fact that it has one of the best natural harbour in the World and world renowned from the dawn of the Christ era about its far flung trade. India’s trade with Arab is legion, and it was the fairytale land eyed by almost all the European powers and voyagers starting from Vasco-da-Gama. Its natives have gone to forlorn countries and cities to earn, work like no other and have created a brand for Kerala labourer as the ‘best hardworker’ from anywhere.

In addition to all the banks putting their anchor here to get a pie of the NRI remittance, and even though their CR ratio is a deep wide, they make profit by deploying funds elsewhere.

But a little known fact, which makes Kerala proud, went unnoticed. It is something unprecedented. I refer to the Economic Survey 2009-10 laid on Feb 25, 2010 in Parliament give flattering account of Kerala’s exports. In Page 171 of the Economic Survey, under Table 7.16 ‘State wise Exports of top 15 States’ are highlighted. Growth rate percentage of different states (reference to US $) between April-September 2009-10 show that Maharashtra had a negative growth of 49.1%, West Bengal 49.1%, Gujarat 27.1%, Delhi 55.2%, UP 51.1%, Andhra 12.3% while only two States came out with positive growth. In the first place is Kerala with 9.2% growth while Haryana posted a positive growth of 0.1%. This is despite the fact that Kerala’s export sectors get poor help and support in the form of benefits of Chapter III Schemes of the Foreign Trade Policy, and has negligible Duty Drawback benefit and poor support under Schemes like Assistance to States for Infrastructure Development for Exports which had an outlay of Rs 570 Cr during 2009-10.

Kerala’s share in total exports of the Country was 2.6% (2008-9). Its growth rate percentage in US $ compared to its earlier year was 101. Maharastra accounted for 24.1% of the total Indian exports in 2008-9 followed by Gujarat (21.7), Tamilnadu (10), and Karnataka (6.6). Kerala’s exports consisting of Spices, Marine products, Cashew, Coir, Coconut products, Service exports, Ayurvedic products, agricultural powders, have done extremely well. It was individual entrepreneur initiative that was responsible for the coaster drive of Kerala, which gets the first position in terms of export growth rate. Well done Kerala Exporters. Well done Kerala entrepreneurs. Kerala can do it.