Digitisation and its impact on trade

NITI Aayog and Trade Promotion Council of India organised a webinar on Digitisation and its impact on Trade on September 25.

Digitisation and lower human intervention are regarded as key foundations to drive trade growth. After India’s ratification of the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade Organization in April 2016, the country has introduced a series of reforms focused on infrastructural upgradation, digitisation and automation. While these initiatives are laudable, experts feel several gaps need to be bridged, especially vis-à-vis standardisation and coordination of processes across ports and awareness and acceptability of new initiatives among the users.

This webinar on the progress and potential of digitisation as a game changer for foreign trade deliberated on: –

• The impact of digitisation on trade in India and industry experience of the same.
• The experience of COVID-19, and how digitisation can help us prepare better for such situations in the future.
• Challenges and concerns of industry when it comes to trade digitisation.
• Perspectives of trade digitisation from banks and logistics service providers.
• What initiatives/roadmap can the industry expect in the coming years from government, banks and logistics players.

Panelists for the session included:

• Dr Badri Narayan Gopalakrishnan, Lead Adviser & Head, Trade & Commerce, NITI Aayog and Member, Committee for Advanced Trade Research, TPCI
• Anand Rajkumar Chordia – Director (Technology & Innovation), Pravin Masalewale (Suhana) & Founder, The Eco Factory Foundation
• R S Subramanian, SVP South Asia, DHL Express
• Dr K. Rangarajan, Professor & Head, Centre for MSME Studies & Head Kolkata Campus, IIFT and Member, Committee for Advanced Trade Research, TPCI
• Adil Zaidi, EY India Partner and Economic Development Advisory Leader
• Nandini Bhattacharyya, Global Trade Product Head, ICICI Bank

The session was moderated by Virat Bahri, Deputy Director, Media & Corporate Communications, Trade Promotion Council of India.