Winning Bizness Economic Desk
The country’s foreign exchange reserves slid sharply by USD 9.809-billion to USD 686.801-billion in the week leading to January 2, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.
In the previous reporting week, the foreign exchange reserves had climbed northward by USD 3.293-billion to USD 696.61-billion.
For the week up to January 2, the Foreign Currency Assets (FCAs), a major component of reserves fell by USD 7.622-billion to USD 551.99-billion, the Reserve Bank’s data showed.
Expressed in dollar terms, the Foreign Currency Assets include the effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units, such as the Euro, Pound and Yen, held in the forex reserves.
The value of gold reserves declined by USD 2.058-billion to USD 111.262-billion during the week, the Reserve Bank said.
The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down by USD 25-million to USD 18.778-billion, the apex bank said.
India’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slipped by USD 105-million to USD 4.771-billion in the reporting week, the RBI data showed.
Mukesh Ambani Makes Five Major Commitments to Gujarat Over Five-Years
Reliance Industries’ Chairman and Managing Director Mr Mukesh Ambani has announced five major commitments for Gujarat which includes a plan to double its investments in the western coastal state over the next five-years.
“In the last five-years alone, we have invested over Rs 3.5-lakh-crore. Today, I am pleased to announce that we will double this to Rs 7-lakh-crore over the next five-years, creating exponential employment, livelihoods and greater sampatti for every Gujarati and every Indian,” the Reliance Industries’ Chairman said at the Vibrant Gujarat Regional Conference held in Rajkot (in Gujarat state) recently.
Mr Mukesh Ambani said that the company’s second commitment is to position the western Indian state as a global leader in clean energy and green materials.
At Jamnagar, the group is building the “world’s largest integrated clean energy eco-system” covering solar power, energy storage, green hydrogen, green fertilisers, sustainable aviation and maritime fuels and advanced materials,” Mr Ambani said.
“These are not industries of today; they are the foundation of India’s prosperous tomorrow,” he said.
According to Mr Ambani, Jamnagar would transition from being a major hydrocarbon exporter to the country’s largest exporter of green energy and materials.
The third commitment related to transforming Kutch into a global clean energy hub.
Mr Ambani highlighted Reliance Industries’ multi-gigawatt, utility scale solar project, describing it as among the world’s largest, designed to deliver round-the-clock clean power through advanced storage and modern grid integration.
The Reliance Industries Chairman’s fourth commitment is to make Gujarat the country’s pioneer in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“In Jamnagar, we are building India’s largest AI-ready data centre with a single goal—affordable AI for every Indian,” Mr Ambani said.
He added that Jio would launch a people-first intelligence platform “built in India, for India and the world”, enabling citizens to access AI services in their own language on their own devices.
The fifth promise centres on sports and social infrastructure.
The country’s premier industrialist said that Reliance Foundation is ready to support the Prime Minister’s vision of bringing the 2036 Olympics to Ahmedabad.
“As a concrete step, Reliance will partner with the Gujarat government to manage the Veer Savarkar Multi-Sports Complex in Naranpura,” Mr Ambani said.
He also announced plans to set-up a world-class hospital in Jamnagar which would cover the entire Saurashtra region and to expand Reliance’s school network to provide quality education to more children.
These five commitments reflect the company’s long-term belief in Gujarat’s role as a growth energy for the country’s future, Mr Ambani observed.
Steep Climb Registered in India’s Exports to China
Neighbouring China has steadily emerged as a crucial export destination for the country with shipments climbing up a steep 33 per cent to USD 12.22-billion during the April-to-November period of this fiscal (FY 2026), Commerce Ministry data showed.
The figures point to a possible structured shift in the bilateral trade relationship between the two countries.
This, it must be pointed out, marks the highest export level to China in the past four years. Another important point here is that this is a change from last year’s decline.
India’s exports to China stood at USD 9.2-billion during April-to-November 2024-25.
In comparison, shipments were valued at USD 9.89-billion in the corresponding period of 2022-23 and USD 10.28-billion in 2023-24.
The sharp climb to USD 12.22-billion in 2025-26 reflects a significant turnaround, the data showed.
The growth was propelled by a broad range of products, including oil meals, marine products, telecom instruments and spices.
In the electronics segment, exports of populated printed circuit board zoomed from USD 23.9-million to USD 922.4-million during the first eight-months of the fiscal.
Other electronic items showing growth included flat panel display modules and electrical apparatus used in telephony.
Agriculture and marine exports were driven by dried chillies, black tiger shrimp, green gram, Vannamei shrimp and oil-coke residues.
Another strong contribution to the overall increase came from exports of aluminium and refined copper billets.
NITI Aayog: PLI-Auto Scheme Needs a Rejig to Increase India’s Auto Exports
There is a strong need for India to relook at the design and scope of its PLI-Auto scheme to up its share in global automobile exports, which, presently stands at a meagre one per cent.
This was stated by the NITI Aayog in the latest edition of its Trade Watch Quarterly.
The scheme’s tilt towards Electric Vehicles (EVs) and a threshold of a 50 per cent domestic value-addition have restricted participation. This is especially so in the case of start-ups and smaller firms.
An important point to note here is that this has dampened investment momentum even in pure EV segments.
“A mid-course review of the scheme could help broaden its coverage, consider the inclusion of non-EV segments, and recalibrate eligibility norms to support a more inclusive and investment-friendly framework,” the report observed.
India’s share in global automobile demand has remained at around one per cent over the past decade, while its share in auto components exports has clocked only a marginal increase—from about 1.2 per cent to two per cent.
Although global EV imports registered a steep northward climb of nearly 30-fold between 2020-24, the country’s participation remains negligible at about 0.1 per cent of global exports and imports “underscoring a widening gap between global momentum and India’s trade footprint,” the report stated.
Other obstacles for Indian exporters include logistical challenges, a lack of branding and cost disadvantages.
An important point to highlight here is that while Indian products are increasingly gaining recognition world-wide for quality, a large number of low-cost, sub-standard imports continues to distort markets.
Here, the views of industry experts need to be highlighted—they have emphasised the need for tighter quality norms, stricter action against dumping and a stronger role for IBEF to bolster the `Made in India’ branding through trade fairs and overseas market linkages.
The sector needs to become more manufacturing-driven, the report observed, for the country to up its global export share.
While the report highlighted the importance of focusing on EV exports, it also underlined the necessity to cut down on import dependence, especially with respect to China.
This import dependence restricts domestic value-addition, weakens supply-chain reliance and undermines the country’s EV manufacturing competition as cost disadvantages persist despite PLI incentives making imports the cheaper option for manufacturers.
