Exports again showed strong performance for third month in a row. According to figures released by the Commerce Ministry last week, exports rose 69.35 percent in May from a year earlier to $32.27 billion. This data is encouraging and raises hopes of better days ahead for the sector, particularly with improvement of the pandemic situation in the country and also gradual opening up of major global markets.

A deeper look into the exports figures for May shows that 19 out of 30 major product groups of exports have registered a very impressive or high positive growth in the month. It is also notable that labour-intensive and employment generating sectors like gems & jewellery, engineering goods, handloom products, marine products, etc. performed well in May. No doubt, continuous support measures taken by the Centre have contributed to this performance.

It is also notable that despite the pandemic, agriculture exports (including marine and plantation products) have registered a growth of 17.34 percent to $ 41.25 billion in 2020-21. Also, cereal exports have done well in the year, with India exporting to several countries like Timor-Leste, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe for the first time or considerably greater in volume. Such a market diversification strategy can benefit other exporting sector as well.

Meanwhile, it is encouraging that the country is witnessing a continuous decline in fresh Covid-19 cases for the past few weeks. This is good news, and though fear of a third wave of the pandemic has hung over us like the sword of Damocles, it can be expected that with the vaccination drive picking up speed and a total of 28,00,36,898 vaccine doses have already been administered through 38,24,408 sessions, we will be able to counter the pandemic successfully.

I invite your opinions.