After the ‘Make In India’ aimed at the manufacturing industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to launch a big push to the services sector in April.
Mr. Modi will inaugurate a global exhibition on services on April 23 to showcase India’s strength in the sector and provide platform to the industry to explore business opportunities, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Seetharaman said in New Delhi on Tuesday. “Services must grow alongside manufacturing as the services sector contributes over 50 per cent in the country's economic growth.”
Over 40 countries are expected to participate in the three-day exhibition, the Minister told reporters. Besides IT, big opportunities exist in other sectors such as tourism, wellness, yoga, healthcare, education, logistics, media and entertainment, R&D, space and hospitality, she said.
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India’s rank in the global exports of services improved from 11th in 2009 to 6th in 2013 still the scope is tremendous as India’s share in the global services trade is only 3 per cent as compared to 4.6 per cent of China, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said. Services sector has an important role to play in the success of the ‘Make in India’, he said. “Unless we are competitive in services, we will not be competitive in merchandise.”
India ran a net surplus of $73 billion in services trade during 2013-14 as exports exceeded imports. The trade surplus in services helped provide for some part of the trade deficit in merchandise of $138 billion.