Cotton sowing is down to 11.24 million hectares, raising alarms about India's ability to reach its target of $100 Bn worth of textile exports by 2030. Mihir Parekh, Associate Partner, Garments, at FED, says "the risk is increased by the fact that import of cotton fibre attracts 10% duty. This can substantially affect India’s export competitiveness by increasing the raw material price throughout the value chain." Read more.

Ashish Dhawan, CEO of The Convergence Foundation, highlights India's success in electronics manufacturing with Apple's rapid expansion as evidence. He urges further reforms to reduce regulatory hurdles and improve infrastructure. Dhawan also advocates for India to become a global skills hub by strategically sending more workers abroad. Dhawan made the observations during an episode of FED Dialogues.

"A tax on imports is a tax on exports!" says FED Director Rahul Ahluwalia. "'Big companies don't go to some place to manufacture because we offer them that we'll raise up tariff walls. In fact, if anything, this reduces the confidence that companies have!' Ahluwalia feels such protectionist measures stem from the mistaken notion that India considers itself to be a big market — which, he says, is not correct from a per capita or spending power parameter," writes K. Sunil Thomas for The Week. Read more.