INDIA’S TRADE IN SERVICES: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

ABSTRACT

“Services” and “Invisible” are one comes across terms. The term ‘invisible’ is used widely in the balance of payments discussions and the term ‘services’ is used in the context of general discussion. The term ‘services’ simply means immateriality, non-storability, consumption and simultaneous production. All the major items of Current Account barring merchandise are treated as ‘invisibles’. Merchandise is tangible, that is, you can touch it physically; while services trades are intangible. One cannot see them physically nor cannot touch it. Intangible trade includes such as education, insurance, medical treatment, consultancy, accounting, banking, cleaning, expertise or transportation. Sometimes it is difficult to identify services, because they are closely relate with a trade of goods, such as the combination of a diagnosis with the administration of a medicine. This paper is an attempt to find the changes in trade in services from India during 2000-01 to 2019-2020 that is for a period of 20 years. The study consist of only Non-factor services. The study examines the major underlying trends of recent years and how they are expected to evolve in the short to medium term.

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