Economic Survey tells half-story for ‘India Shining’

Economic Survey spotlights brighter side while dimming dark areas

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, July 23: The Economic Survey largely made meek headlines on reform thoughts. The annual document mostly gave overviews of the economy with polishes on shiner side.

The Economic Survey also told half stories to help in building selective narrative. It may be advisable to test the claims made by the Economic Survey. With the Economic Survey lacking in ideas, it may also be a harbinger of reform drought in the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre.

While spotlighting India’s emerging self-reliance in the toy sector, the Economic Survey said: “India’s toy exports have shown a rising trend, registering a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.9 per cent between FY13 and FY24, according to DGCI&S data.”

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The Economic Survey expanded its premise, saying: “Rising exports, coupled with declining imports, transformed India from a deficit to a surplus nation in the trade of toys.”

It also stated that “for over a decade, India heavily relied on China for around 76 per cent of its toy imports. India’s import bill for toys from China dropped from $214 million in FY13 to $41.6 million in FY24, leading to a decline in China’s share in India’s toy imports from 94 per cent in FY13 to 64 per cent in FY24”.

This shining story darkens when contrasted with a news report of The Economic Times from May 7, 2024. The report quoted Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), saying that India’s toy exports didn’t benefit from the mandatory quality controls. The GTRI report was quoted having said that “India’s toy exports, from FY20 to FY22, modestly increased from $129.6 million to $177 million, while it decreased in FY24 to $152.3 million”.

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The news report further quoted the founder of GTRI Ajay Shrivastava, saying: “Imports of inputs used for making toys is much higher than import of finished toys. For example, we imported glass eyes for dolls or other toys, beads and imitation stones of value $137.2 million in FY24.”

It is also worth recalling that China recently trumpeted a $100 billion plus trade surplus with India in the last financial year. The China-India trade data for the last year had show sharp uptick in imports of inputs for telecom, compute hardware, and others used in manufacturing smart phones, laptops, tablets, smart televisions, smart watches, etc.

The Economic Survey has also lent its weight to India aligning with China dominated global supply chains. This comes at a time when ‘China Plus’ narrative is at the centre stage in the western world.

The Economic Survey on the other hand helps the MPs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with handful of data to spotlight the “India Shining”.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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