Economy · Sub-pillar 4.5
Trade and global competitiveness
Exports, including tourism, integration into global supply chains, and the ability of Indian goods and services to compete internationally.
What is trade and global competitiveness?
Trade and global competitiveness is sub-pillar 4.5 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the fifth of nine sub-pillars under the Economy pillar. It asks whether Indian goods and services can compete in world markets, measured by exports, by India's place in global supply chains, and by the visitors India draws as a destination.
Why it matters for 2047
No country has become rich selling only to itself. Exports are the test of whether a country's products are good enough and cheap enough for people who have a choice, and the way a country of 140 crore earns the foreign exchange to buy what it does not make.
India's trade story is unusual: a services superpower whose goods exports are modest for its size. Software, business services and now global capability centres earn as much abroad as all of India's factories combined. The question for 2047 is whether manufacturing can join services on the world stage.
Tourism belongs here because it is an export too: every foreign visitor buys Indian services with foreign money, and the number who come is a measure of how the world sees the country.
Where India stands
- $863.1 bn
was the value of India's total exports in 2025-26, a record: US$441.8 billion of merchandise and US$421.3 billion of services, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.[1]
- 1.8%
was India's share of world merchandise exports in 2024 (18th in the world), against 4.3% of world commercial services exports (8th), according to WTO data compiled by DGCI&S.[2]
- 20.57 mn
international tourist arrivals were recorded in 2024, up from 18.89 million in 2023 and above the pre-pandemic 17.91 million of 2019, according to the Ministry of Tourism.[3]
- 16+
trade agreements were in force or signed by mid-2026, including with the UAE, Australia, the EFTA states, the UK and New Zealand; exports to ASEAN partners alone were US$38.4 billion in 2025-26.[1]
Exports have never been higher, and services are now almost half of the total; India sells 4.3% of the world's commercial services and ranks eighth in the world for them. [1][2] A run of trade agreements since 2022, from the UAE and Australia to the UK and the European Free Trade Association, has opened markets that were closed or tariffed. [1]
Goods are the weak half. India's 1.8% share of world merchandise exports is about the same as it was a decade ago and far below its share of world population or output. [2] Tourism has recovered past its pre-pandemic level in arrivals, but India draws a small fraction of the visitors that countries of similar size and heritage attract. [3]
A note on the numbers: export totals are the Commerce Ministry's figures and services data is revised with a lag; world shares come from the WTO and relate to calendar 2024; international tourist arrivals include non-resident Indians visiting, which the older foreign tourist arrivals measure did not.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- Exports of goods and services (US$ and as a share of GDP) (Ministry of Commerce; RBI).
- India's share of world merchandise and commercial services exports (WTO).
- International and foreign tourist arrivals (Ministry of Tourism).
Two lenses on trade and global competitiveness
City and village
47 BH asks whether the small manufacturers of towns like Moradabad, Tiruppur and Rajkot can reach world buyers as easily as a Bengaluru software firm, and whether tourism's earnings reach the villages around monuments and not only hotel chains in cities. Export clusters are often in small cities; services exports are concentrated in a few metros.
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from economies that built goods exports through logistics, quality standards and openness to imports of components, and from countries that turned heritage into tourism income with clean, safe, well-connected destinations?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as protecting domestic producers so well that they never learn to compete, raising tariffs on inputs that exporters need, or counting trade agreements signed rather than exports won?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as its services firms and engineering talent, its generic medicine industry, its diaspora networks, and the heritage and hospitality that bring visitors back?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Shifting workers into manufacturing and raising productivity at home: Economy: Productivity and structural change
- Ports, logistics and transport costs: Economy: Infrastructure
- Innovation and technology in Indian business: Enterprise: Innovation and technology
- Markets that stay open to new entrants at home: Enterprise: Open and fair markets
- Heritage and culture as living parts of Indian life: Family and Society: Culture, heritage and languages
Questions about trade and global competitiveness
How much does India export?
US$863.1 billion of goods and services in 2025-26, a record: US$441.8 billion of merchandise and US$421.3 billion of services, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. [1]
What is India's share of world trade?
1.8% of world merchandise exports (18th) and 4.3% of world commercial services exports (8th) in 2024, according to WTO data compiled by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics. [2]
How many tourists visit India?
20.57 million international tourist arrivals in 2024, up from 18.89 million in 2023 and 17.91 million in 2019, according to the Ministry of Tourism citing Bureau of Immigration data. [3]
Which trade agreements does India have?
Agreements in force or signed by mid-2026 include those with ASEAN, SAFTA, the UAE, Australia, the UK, EFTA, Oman, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and New Zealand, according to the Ministry of Commerce. [1]
Why does 47 BH treat tourism as trade?
Because a foreign visitor buys Indian services with foreign money, exactly as an importer buys Indian goods. Arrivals measure both the economy's earning power and how the world sees the country.
Sources
- Ministry of Commerce and Industry, "India's Exports Scale Record US$ 863.1 Billion in FY 2025-26", Rajya Sabha written reply, Press Information Bureau, 28 July 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2290437®=48&lang=1
- Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, "A Quick View of India's Trade Scenario", August 2025, citing WTO Global Trade Outlook, April 2025. https://www.dgciskol.gov.in/writereaddata/Downloads/20250819155439A%20Quick%20View%20of%20Indias%20Trade%20Scenario.pdf
- Ministry of Tourism, "International Tourist Arrivals to India Surge to 20.57 million in 2024", Press Information Bureau, 29 January 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2220111®=3&lang=2
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.