Export Preparedness Index 2021

Export Preparedness Index 2021

Part of: GS-Prelims and GS-III: Indian Economy & its challenges

In News: NITI Aayog, in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness, released the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2021.

• A comprehensive analysis of India’s export achievements. 
• The index can be used by states and union territories (UTs) to benchmark their performance against their peers and analyse potential challenges to develop better policy mechanisms to foster export-led growth at the subnational level.
• The Export Preparedness Index is a data-driven endeavour to identify the fundamental areas critical for subnational export promotion.

Three major challenges to India’s export promotion:

• Intra- and inter-regional differences in export infrastructure
• Weak trade support and growth orientation across states
• Lack of R&D infrastructure to promote complex and unique exports

The EPI ranks states and UTs on 4 main pillars—

1. Policy: A comprehensive trade policy provides a strategic direction for exports and imports.
2. Business Ecosystem: An efficient business ecosystem can help attract investments and create an enabling infrastructure for businesses to grow.
3. Export Ecosystem: This pillar aims to assess the business environment, which is specific to exports.
4. Export Performance: This is the only output-based pillar and examines the reach of export footprints of states and union territories.

11 sub-pillars—

• Export Promotion Policy
• Institutional Framework
• Business Environment
• Infrastructure
• Transport Connectivity
• Access to Finance
• Export Infrastructure
• Trade Support
• R&D Infrastructure
• Export Diversification
• Growth Orientation

EPI 2021 will help the states and UTs in a long way to plan and execute sound export-oriented policies for ensuring a conducive export ecosystem, to make maximum utilization of their export potential.

News Source: PIB