A special fund has been earmarked by the government for providing financial assistance to the States towards infrastructural development for promoting their exports. This was stated by Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, while inaugurating the first Seminar under the aegis of the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S), Kolkata, of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on "Post-WTO Trade Scenario – An Indian Perspective" in Kolkata on November 8, 2002.
Stating that the government have taken a number of policy initiatives for promoting exports in the highly competitive trade environment of the WTO regime, Rudy indicated that clearance had been given for establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Agri Export Zones (AEZs) in different parts of the country wherein a number of concessions and incentives would be provided to the exporters. Listing out the other major policy initiatives, Rudy said that quantitative restrictions on imports and exports had been withdrawn from all items, except for a few sensitive ones; export restrictions like those of quantity, packaging etc., were lifted for a number of agricultural and allied products; and funds were also being provided for implementing various schemes to promote exports from the handicrafts and cottage industry sectors.
"While imports have been liberalised, its growth is being closely monitored and remedial actions being taken so as to ensure that there is no sudden upsurge of imports. However, critical analysis and interpretation of WTO-related issues and value-added quality information are the needs of the hour to assess the impact of the policies and reviewing them from time to time", Rudy said.
According to an official press release, DGCI&S, Kolkata, was formed as a statistical branch of the then Department of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India, in 1872. Its functions were to estimate and quantify the statistical information relating to agriculture, industries, trade, commerce etc. Over the decades, the functions of this organisation had changed, at present leading to compilations of statistical information and dissemination of trade information to users in India and also abroad.