ervi es e tor      10.7
              Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellites              have been more affected. Furthermore, in 2015,
              (namely Resourcesat-2, Oceansat-2 and               the rupee has depreciated strongly against the
              Cartosat-1) to the world community                  dollar which should have helped India’s exports
              (through the International Ground                   of services.
              Station). During 2017-18, Antrix has                     These developments have longer-term
              been working with various resellers across
                                                                  implications. Realising India’s medium-term
              the globe for distribution of IRS data,
                                                                  growth potential of 8-10 per cent will require
              including Europe, USA, Latin America,
              Africa and South Eastern Countries.                 rapid growth of exports. How rapid this should
                                                                  be is suggested by comparing India’s export
              By March 2017, PSLV had successfully
                                                                  performance in services with China’s performance
              launched 254 satellites. This includes
              37 National Satellites, eight student               in manufacturing at a comparable stage of the
              satellites built by universities/academic           growth surge.
              institutions, one re-entry mission and                   China’s global market share in manufacturing
              209 foreign satellites from 29 countries.           exports beginning in 1991 and India’s global
              Foreign exchange earnings of India from             market share beginning in 2003 were roughly
              export of satellite launch services increased       similar. The magnitude of the challenge becomes
              noticeably in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to                evident when examining China’s trajectory over
              Rs 394 crore. Consequently, India’s share in        the last fifteen years.
              global satellite launch services revenue has             To achieve a similar trajectory, India’s
              also increased to 1.1 per cent in 2015-16           competitiveness will have to improve so that
              (it was 0.3 per cent in the preceding year).        its services exports, currently about 3 per cent
                                                                  of world exports, capture nearly 15 per cent of
        manufacturInG vS. ServIceS                                world market share. That is a sizeable challenge,
     All the focus being on the manufacturing exports             and recent trends suggest that a major effort at
     in India has distracted attention from what might            improving competitiveness will be necessary to
     be a no less noteworthy development7. In past                meet it.
     few years, it is India’s exports of services that
     has changed in the most significant, and perhaps                Global neGotIatIonS
     alarming, way. One can see the problem looking
     at market shares. India’s share of world exports             India aims to position itself as a key player
     of services, after surging in the mid-2000s, has             in world services trade. To promote services
     flattened out.                                               exports, the government has taken a number of
          What makes this development puzzling is that            policy initiatives – SEIS (Service Exports from
     in recent years the composition of Indian exports            India Scheme) for increasing exports of notified
     of services is more favourable than that of Indian           services from India; organising GES (Global
     exports of manufactured goods. More of the                   Exhibitions on Services); and SCs (Services
     former goes to the United States, and more of the            Conclaves). Besides, some initiatives in sectors
     latter to Asia. Since Asia has slowed down more              like tourism and shipping have also been taken
     rapidly, India’s exports of manufactures should              in this regard. Given the potential of India’s
        7.  Economic Survey 2015-16, Vol. 2, pp. 167-68, Ministry services exports, services-sector negotiations both
            of Finance, GoI, N. Delhi.                            at multilateral and bilateral and regional levels are