India's Foreign Trade From Antiquity to Date [Hardcover]

India is fast emerging as a major force in the world economy, next only to China. Many scholars have pointed out that over the next two decades, India and China will emerge as super powers. Back in the early Fifties, India was a young State, still in the process of building its economy. In those days, India's position in the world trade was insignificant. As would be apparent, the idea behind the book has been to study the export potential of each commodity, as also the countries which attract heavy import from India, both quantity-wise and value-wise. The study deals with different items of import and export, which will be of great interest to those involved in industrial and agricultural production in the country. Items that are in great demand require large-scale production. Further, these very items may have equally large demand within the country. This will require greater attention, as only surplus can be exported. While India's foreign trade in the ancient, medieval and modern periods have been dealt with by different authors, trade during the contemporary period-from 1960-61 onwards-has barely been dealt with, except by one author. The present work has been an attempt to bridge this gap. As would be apparent, writing a treatise of this nature involved a great deal of research. It involved collecting data from several government agencies and trade bodies. The present work deals not only with commodities, but also with the service sector, as also barter, which began gaining momentum during the recent global economic slowdown. I would like to acknowledge help from Dr. Baldeo Sahai, an author of about a dozen books, who lent me invaluable advice and to my daughter, Swati Prasad, for going through the manuscript. Contents:- Contents, Preface 7, Introduction 9, PART-A, 1. Trade-Ancient India 21, 2. Trade-Medieval India 27, 3. Trade-Modern India 31, PART-B : INDIA'S TRADE; CONTEMPORARY, PERIOD (1960-61 TO 2009-10), 4. Trade Policy and WTO 45, 5. Agriculture-Perisha