The Parliament was informed today that imports from China has grown sixfold in the last 10 years. In 2015-16, imports from China stood at $61.71 billion compared to $10.87 in 2005-06.
Increasing imports from China can be attributed to the fact that these are mostly manufactured items required to meet India’s demand for fast expanding sectors like telecom and power, which China, due to variety of reasons, is able to export at competitive prices, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
The major imports included computer hardware, drug intermediates, consumer electronics, electrical machinery as well as iron and steel.
With the growth in the electronics manufacturing sector, the requirements for components have also increased and all these are getting imported. India needs to have a massive electronic components manufacturing base, which is currently missing.
Imports in 2013-14 and 2014-15 were $51 billion and $60.4 billion, respectively.
India wants to become a self sustained market when it comes to manufacturing, but for this to happen India needs to have foothold over the ecosystem of manufacturing. China always had a lead over India, because they started off as a manufacturing country quite early.
By Atanu Kumar Das
