Lok Sabha Question No. 16 (STARRED), answered on 2022-02-02
Subject: Boosting of Services Exports
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: Bidyut Baran Mahato, Shrirang Appa Barne

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE)

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 16 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02 nd  FEBRUARY, 2022

## BOOSTING OF SERVICES EXPORTS

## *16. SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO: SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE

Will the Minister of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY ( वाणिज्य एवं उद्योग मं त्री ) be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes to provide impetus to IT sector to accelerate the growth and help Services Exports to reach $1 trillion at the end of this decade and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has set any target regarding its merchandise export for the current fiscal year and if so, the details thereof and steps taken to achieve the same;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to start IT hubs in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns and cities to create jobs and uplift the Services Sector along with the development of the region and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) the details of funds sanctioned and released for this purpose;
- (e) the details of the locations identified for establishing such IT hubs; and
- (f) the other steps taken to create a favourable ecosystem for start-ups, help IT industry to grow rapidly and contribute to country's export of Services?

## ANSWER

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## THE MINISTER OF  COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (f):  A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a) to (f)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO. 16   FOR   ANSWER  ON   02 nd  FEBRUARY,  2022 REGARDING   ' BOOSTING OF SERVICES EXPORTS'.

- (a) The initiative taken by the Government of India for promoting IT/ ITeS industry in the country are as below:
- i. National Policy on Software Products-2019 with an aim to develop India as the global software product hub, driven by innovation, improved commercialization, sustainable Intellectual property (IP), promoting technology start-ups and specialised skill sets, for development of the sector, based on  ICT has  been  approved.  The  objective  of  the policy is to create a robust Indian Software Product development ecosystem leading to ten-fold increase in India share of the Global Software product market and so as to generate direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million people by 2025.
- ii. Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) has been approved to support software product  ecosystem  and  to  address  a  significant  portion  of  National  Policy  on Software Product (NPSP 2019). It is envisaged to create a vibrant software product ecosystem  to  complement  the  robust  IT  Industry  for  continued  growth,  new employment and enhance competitiveness.
- iii. Some other  initiatives  to  promote  IT  sector  exports  include  Future  Skills  PRIME, Market  Development  Initiative  in  Nordics  and  Africa  Region,  Market  Outreach Initiatives etc. under Champion Sector Services Scheme.
- iv. Further, in order to promote trade in services including IT services, Department of Commerce  follows  a  multi-pronged  strategy  which  comprises  seeking  meaningful market access through multilateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements. Focused efforts  are  also  being  made  to  address  mobility  issues  being  faced  by  the  service suppliers and resolve barriers if any, faced by the exporters and other stakeholders as a part of these agreements.
- (b) A target of US$ 400 billion for Merchandise exports for FY 2021-22 has been set. These targets  have  been  communicated  to  State  Governments,  Missions  Abroad  and  all  Export Promotion  Council  (EPCs)  for  action.  Following  are  some  of  the  steps  taken  to  increase exports:
- i. 'Districts as Export Hubs'(DEH) Initiative under which products and services with export potential have been identified in all districts of the country. An institutional mechanism has been set up in each District in the form of District Export Promotion Committees (DEPCs). The primary function of the DEPC is to prepare and act on District Specific Export  Action  Plans  in collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders from the Centre, State and District levels.

- ii. A Central Sector Scheme 'Transport and Marketing Assistance (TMA) for Specified Agriculture  Products'  for  providing  assistance  for  the  international  component  of freight, to mitigate the freight disadvantage for the export of agriculture products, and marketing of agricultural products, is under implementation.
- iii. Market Access Initiative (MAI) Scheme is an Export Promotion Scheme envisaged to act as a catalyst to promote India's exports on a sustained basis. The scheme is formulated on focus product-focus country approach to evolve specific market and specific  product  through  market  studies/survey.  Assistance  would  be  provided  to Export  Promotion  Organizations/Trade  Promotion  Organizations/National  Level Institutions/  Research Institutions/Universities/Laboratories, Exporters etc., for enhancement of exports through accessing new markets or through increasing the share in the existing markets.
- iv. In addition, assistance to the exporters of agricultural products is also available under the Export Promotion Schemes of Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), Tobacco  Board,  Tea  Board,  Coffee  Board,  Rubber  Board  and  Spices Board.
- v. Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) is operational from FY 2017-18 with the  objective  of  assisting  Central  and  State  Government  agencies  for  creation  of appropriate infrastructure for growth of exports.
- vi. The Government has introduced the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products  (RoDTEP).  This  scheme  seeks  remission  of  Central,  State  and  Local duties/taxes/levies at different stages at the Central, State and local level, which are incurred in the process of manufacture and distribution of exported products, but are currently not being refunded under any other duty remission scheme.
- vii. Common Digital Platform for Certificate of Origin to facilitate trade and increase FTA utilization by exporters.
- viii. EPCs, Commodity Boards and India's mission abroad are actively promoting India's trade, tourism, technology and investment goals.
8. (c) Software  Technology  Parks  of  India  (STPI),  an  autonomous  society  under  Ministry  of Electronics and Information Technology has established 62 STPI centres across the country, of which 54 centres are located in Tier II and Tier III cities.

To create employment opportunities and dispersal of IT/ITES industry in small cities and towns (excluding metro locations), Government had launched two BPO promotion schemes, namely  India  BPO  Promotion  Scheme  (IBPS)  and  North  East  BPO  Promotion  Scheme (NEBPS). These schemes aim to incentivize setting up of 53,300 seats BPO/ITES operations by providing financial support up to 1 lakh per seat in the form of viability gap funding. Since the inception of these schemes, around 250 units have set up BPO/ITES operations across 27 States/UTs of the country, providing direct employment to over 47,000 persons. Under these schemes, the disbursements of financial support are on reimbursement basis directly linked with the objective i.e. employment generation by the units.

- (d) The STPI centres are being set-up by STPI from its own internal accruals as per the extant policy of setting-up of new STPI centres, no funds are being sanctioned or released by the Union Government for this purpose. Till now, financial support of Rs. 80 crores have been disbursed to BPO/ITES units under IPBS and NEBPS schemes.
- (e) The State-wise list of existing STPI Centres is at Annexure-I.
- (f) In  order  to  create  favourable  ecosystem  for  start-ups,  various  domain-centric  Center  of Excellences (CoEs) have been set-up by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in collaboration with suitable partners and stakeholders (State Government, Industry/ Industry Associations, Academia) in various parts of country. These CoEs are acting as singlewindow facilitators to extend requisite lab support, funding, mentoring services, etc. Further, to help IT industry to grow rapidly and contribute to country's exports of services; Software  Technology  Park  (STP)  Scheme  -  a  100%  export-oriented  scheme  is  being implemented  by  STPI  for  the  development  and  export  of  computer  software  using communication links or physical media and including export of professional services.

Other major initiatives of Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) to promote technology led startup-innovation ecosystem are:

-  Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0) Scheme
-  MeitY Start-up Hub (MSH)
-  Scheme  for  Accelerating  Startups  around  Post  COVID  Technology  Opportunities (SASACT)
-  Start-up Accelerator Programmes
-  Electronic system and design manufacturing Entrepreneur Parks
-  Support for International Patent Protection in E&IT (SIP-EIT) Scheme for SMEs

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## Annexure-I: List of existing STPI Centres:

|   S. N | State             | Centre Name        |
|--------|-------------------|--------------------|
|      1 | Andhra Pradesh    | Kakinada           |
|      2 | Andhra Pradesh    | Tirupati           |
|      3 | Andhra Pradesh    | Vijayawada         |
|      4 | Andhra Pradesh    | Vizag              |
|      5 | Assam             | Guwahati           |
|      6 | Bihar             | Patna              |
|      7 | Chhattisgarh      | Bhilai             |
|      8 | Gujarat           | Gandhinagar        |
|      9 | Gujarat           | Surat              |
|     10 | Haryana           | Gurgaon            |
|     11 | Himachal Pradesh  | Shimla             |
|     12 | Jammu and Kashmir | Jammu              |
|     13 | Jammu and Kashmir | Srinagar           |
|     14 | Jharkhand         | Ranchi             |
|     15 | Jharkhand         | Deoghar            |
|     16 | Karnataka         | Bengaluru          |
|     17 | Karnataka         | Hubli              |
|     18 | Karnataka         | Mangalore          |
|     19 | Karnataka         | Manipal            |
|     20 | Karnataka         | Mysore             |
|     21 | Kerala            | Thiruvananthapuram |
|     22 | Madhya Pradesh    | Gwalior            |
|     23 | Madhya Pradesh    | Bhopal             |
|     24 | Madhya Pradesh    | Indore             |
|     25 | Maharashtra       | Aurangabad         |
|     26 | Maharashtra       | Kolhapur           |
|     27 | Maharashtra       | Nagpur             |
|     28 | Maharashtra       | Nasik              |
|     29 | Maharashtra       | Mumbai             |
|     30 | Maharashtra       | Pune               |
|     31 | Manipur           | Imphal             |
|     32 | Meghalaya         | Shillong           |
|     33 | Mizoram           | Aizawl             |
|     34 | Nagaland          | Kohima             |
|     35 | Odisha            | Berhampur          |
|     36 | Odisha            | Bhubaneswar        |
|     37 | Odisha            | Rourkela           |
|     38 | Pondicherry       | Pondicherry        |
|     39 | Punjab            | Mohali             |
|     40 | Rajasthan         | Jaipur             |
|     41 | Rajasthan         | Jodhpur            |
|     42 | Sikkim            | Gangtok            |
|     43 | Tamil Nadu        | Chennai            |
|     44 | Tamil Nadu        | Coimbatore         |
|     45 | Tamil Nadu        | Madurai            |

| S. N      | State       | Centre Name   |
|-----------|-------------|---------------|
| 46.       |             | Tirunelveli   |
| 47.       |             | Trichy        |
| 48.       | Telangana   | Hyderabad     |
| 49.       |             | Warangal      |
| 50. Uttar | Pradesh     | Allahabad     |
| 51.       |             | Kanpur        |
| 52.       |             | Lucknow       |
| 53.       |             | Meerut        |
| 54.       |             | Noida         |
| 55.       | Uttarakhand | Dehradun      |
| 56.       | West Bengal | Durgapur      |
| 57.       |             | Haldia        |
| 58.       |             | Kharagpur     |
| 59.       |             | Kolkata       |
| 60.       |             | Siliguri      |
| 61.       | Tripura     | Agartala      |
| 62.       | Goa         | Goa           |

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