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As the world tries to grapple with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are concerns about the revivals of economies across the globe. The world is also trying to make sense of global restructuring trade, which is expected in the post-COVID-19 world. This paper attempts to analyze the emerging trade scenario between India and China. Atlas of Economic Complexity theory (ACE) by Ricardo Hausmann, Cesar A. Hidalgo has been taken as a base for this research. This study propagates that the countries with products that require more know-how have more potential to grow. Taking the Atlas map giving details of Indian exports as a base, the researchers have compared the data from the last two years. The purpose is to identify whether the complexity of Indian exports is increasing or not. A particular case study has been done on Indian exports to China. There has been little progress in this field as India is exporting more complex products slightly to China. There is an urgent need to formulate a strategy to enhance the complexity of Indian exports. The policymakers need to give impetus to the industries which have a cross-cultural demand in China and leverage this opportunity. This will open the path for consolidating India's position in the global trade as well as improving its strategic position vis-a-vis China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of exchange rate changes on India's trade. The drivers of exports and imports (income, exchange rate including sectoral differences, and exchange rate variability) are estimated for the short and long run including a structural break. Using annual data from 1994 to 2022, the results of dynamic fixed effects estimation show that both exports and imports are income-elastic in the short and long run, but income elasticity is far stronger for exports. Moreover, exports are responsive to the real effective exchange rate in the short run but not in the long run, and the reverse is true for imports. Furthermore, exchange rates have asymmetric effects for high-volume and primary sectors for exports and imports. The combined impacts show the ineffectiveness of using currency depreciation to address trade imbalances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the genealogy of competitive indices in international trade and theoretically develops a measure of export threat which estimates direct competition in vertical market segments. We identify the assumption of homogeneity in these export threat measures as a weakness that undermines accuracy. Hence, we develop a new measure of export threat, the direct intra-market threat (DIMT), which incorporates relative vertical and market share changes over time to accurately estimate a country’s direct threat to other exporters in a third market. We argue that the market segmentation method applied in complement to the DIMT estimate provides an all-encompassing methodology in the estimation of export threat, which we argue is superior to the Dynamic Index of Competitive Threat (DICT) and Direct Threat methodologies. The paper uses the case of China and India (CHINDIA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to assess the empirical estimates of the DIMT relative to DICT and Direct Threat over the period 2000–2021. Our study is motivated by a research gap in the estimation of the competitive threat posed by a large, diversified exporter on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paradiplomatic activities carried out by maritime cities in Asia through diverse practices is the core essence of this paper. Asia’s prominence over the global maritime trade has set out an extensive foreign engagement of maritime cities and coastal regions in maritime affairs that deems maritime paradiplomacy as an emerging dimension in Asia. The paper attempts to identify how practice of maritime paradiplomacy among Asian countries is unconventional yet an innovative practice. In an attempt to study Asia’s maritime paradiplomatic practice with a specific focus on China, Singapore, Japan and India, the paper addresses multidimensional approach of maritime cities and coastal regions in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the hypothesis that there is an association between increased levels of trade liberalisation and economic growth through a comparative analysis of two giant emerging economies of the world - India and China. For this purpose the paper examines trends in GDP growth and various trade openness measures via empirical analysis of time-series data of the last 43 years, based on eight key indicators to compare the experiences of the two countries. These indicate that rapid and gradual trade liberalisation of both the countries, coupled with supporting economic, institutional, and infrastructural reforms, and advancement in technology led to the linking of these giants with the global markets, which has significantly contributed towards their economic growth, thereby supporting the phenomena that there is a significant positive relationship between liberalisation and economic growth. While China was seen to be experiencing growth, India was also on the right track. Indicators of both liberalisation and growth reveal that both the countries enhanced their economy significantly as they embraced international trade through trade reforms and economic liberalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and structure of the global integration triggered by trade vary across countries based on their natural, socio-economic, and political intricacies. The paper empirically analyzes the emerging trade geographies of 'the rest' with an example of India. An attempt is made to capture geographical bias in the trade pattern of India, and also to gauge the role played by core geographical elements, such as distance and proximity. The analysis is confined to a sample of 67 and 81 trade partners in 1990 and 2016 respectively. Empirical findings suggest (i) Geographical bias is evident, however, the degree of bias varies across countries; (ii) Large economic size of the trading partner and geographical proximity do influence bilateral trade. Preliminary findings assert that the friction of distance on trade flows between India and her major partners is invariant in the globalized era;(iii) Trade relations are predominantly influenced by the economic factors relative to socio-cultural proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates why India actively negotiated and ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first global health treaty to curb tobacco use worldwide. The World Health Organization's (WHO) decision to conduct FCTC negotiations aligned with India's shifting disease burden that was pivoting from infectious to non-communicable diseases, particularly cancer, which shot up due to surging tobacco use. The WHO's decision to frame the agreement around constraining global tobacco commerce, particularly the might of multinational tobacco companies, meshed with the interests of New Delhi, which was concurrently seeking to curb surging tobacco consumption. This triggered a positive approach and attitude to FCTC negotiations, leading to India's ratification. India's negotiation and ratification of the FCTC shows that the literature(s) on rising powers and international organizations must consider how factors like the WHO's institutional politics, specifically the intent to negotiate a focused global agreement to curb tobacco production and distribution worldwide, affects how countries perceive and seek to use that agreement to bolster domestic policy concerns like tobacco control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expected gains guide the decision to join trade agreements (TAs). While it is difficult to predict whether the ongoing trade war will result in a significant shift in the global trade paradigm, India's renewed interest in TAs with numerous developed economies, as well as worsening trade balances with existing TA partners, necessitates a review of India's current TAs before negotiating new ones. Using a stochastic frontier gravity model, the study evaluates the impact of RTAs (free and preferential; deep and shallow) on India's export efficiency from 2002 to 2020. The paper also investigates how TA affected Indian exports during the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020. The findings demonstrate that India's preferential and shallow TAs had a maximum export efficiency of 55 % between 2002 and 2020. Moreover, shallow TAs demonstrated their resilience in encouraging Indian exports in 2020. Findings reveal that India has failed to fully leverage its deep TAs, which are critical for stimulating commerce, investment, and economic growth. As a result, India must safeguard its interests during the ongoing deep trade talks by focusing on non-tariff barriers and rules of origin to promote exports and harmonize regulatory standards to facilitate FDI-led integration into global GVCs to boost export potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides large scale evidence on the determinants of international competitiveness of Indian manufacturing firms, focusing in particular on the role of technology, costs and imported intermediate inputs. Our evidence suggests that innovation, in particular R&D investment, is positively related to both firms' probability to export and firms' export volumes. We also find that imported intermediate inputs, incorporating foreign technology is strongly associated with expanding export activities of firms. Finally, and in contrast to much of previous evidence on developed economies, we find that higher productivity or lower unit labour costs are not systematically associated with the probability to enter export markets, but they are positively related to higher export volumes. Overall our results point to the existence of a pattern of involvement in international trade for firms in developing countries that is not relying as a main driver on cost competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will dwell at length on post-independence compulsions, challenges and priorities of Pakistan's foreign policy by examining four major themes: first, the influence of western powers on the elites of Pakistan which culminated into forging alliances with the US-led anticommunist blocs and reflected the threat perception of those who wielded power. Second, economic and military dependence of Pakistan also impacted on the decision - making process of the country 's foreign policy in the post-independence era. Third, by joining the western alliance system Pakistan compromised on its neutrality and faced antagonism from many Muslim and Third World countries. India took advantage of Pakistan's reliance on anti-communist alliances and asa non-aligned state deepened its influence, particularly in communist and developing countries. Finally, despite getting enormous economic and military assistance from the western bloc, Pakistan failed to deal with, its economic and security predicament and its foreign policy remained hostage to fragile decisionmaking and the weakening of civilian control ouer key foreign policy matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reading of Bartholomew Burges' Indostan Letters (1790), a little known early transatlantic text addressed to patrons both in Britain and America, goes far in illuminating the "connected histories" of India and the United States facilitated by the maritime circuits of the transatlantic. A remarkable travelogue, Indostan Letters foregrounds the triangulated relationship between India, the United States, and Britain which would come to exercise an outsize influence in the American imaginary in the early republic. Although, seemingly a rogue ex-colonial whose single-minded pursuit of self-promotion and riches shows a remarkable spirit of enterprise, Burges was not in fact an eccentric or anomalous figure. Cannily conversant with, and enmeshed in, local and global networks of trade, knowledge, and politics, Indostan Letters embodies a cultural sensibility and voice, at once worldly and naïve, brash and diplomatic, optimistic and opportunistic, that Crevecoeur identified as uniquely American. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between EU and India focusing on services trade. Based on the text published by the European Union, it uses the OECD STRI simulator to calculate the preference margins implied by the agreement and next predicts the impact on services trade flows using a general equilibrium structural gravity analysis. I find that the preference margin on the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) for Indian exports to the EU is between four and eight basis points depending on the sector, while for EU's exports to India the preference margin is between 10 and 35 basis points. The predicted effect is more than a doubling of EU services exports to India, while India's services exports to the EU would increase by about 50%. EU's trade with the rest of the world would not change much, while India's exports to the rest of the world would contract by about 3%. Real services output would not change much in the EU or India. Lifting trade restrictions in the telecommunications sector is the most important policy area for facilitating services trade. About half of the predicted export expansion is driven by reforms to domestic regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak has put the global economic scenario out of order. The mechanism of lockdown and social distancing has paved a grave situation for global trade in general and services in particular as they are inseparable and requires proximity between the supplier and the consumer. In view of the outstanding contribution of services in India's foreign trade, this study examines the impact of the pandemic on aggregate, sectoral and mode-wise services exports from India. It ultimately seeks to highlight key opportunities, challenges and suggestions to protect and promote India's services interest amid this global disruption. We review the quarterly and monthly services exports patterns from January to July 2020 based on the data obtained from the World Trade Organization and the Reserve Bank of India. The perspective on mode-wise services exports is derived from the Trade-in Services by Modes of Supply (TISMOS) data set of the WTO for 2017. The analysis highlights a severe drop in overall services exports, by over 10% during the second quarter of 2020. Travel, transport and financial services have been hit hardest. However, the decline in India's services exports found as relatively much lower in comparison to other major services exporting economies. The comparative edge in digital or Mode 1 services offers greater opportunities for the country in the longer period if urgent policy initiatives and support are extended to potential online services sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]