Having continued the stimulus measures to boost the country’s sinking exports, the government seems set on arresting job losses that the sector has faced through foreign trade policy measures. But, most exporters were not upbeat about the impact of these measures announced by commerce minister Anand Sharma.

The policy announced for 2009-2014 has unveiled a separate incentive package meant for specific sectors that employ maximum number of people such as gems and jewellery, handloom, leather, marine and pharmaceutical among others. “The measures that were announced in the trade policy would help in augmenting our exports, which will, in turn, help in protecting jobs, if not creating new ones. Last year, we had job loss of around 200,000, a significant number out of that has come back,” said Vasant Mehta, chairman, Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said “special thrust” has been given to sectors that employ large number of people. The main objective for this is to stabilise these sectors and help them sustain even if a turnaround in developed economies looks distant.

Some of the main incentives announced for the gems and jewellery sector are duty neutralisation on gold jewellery exports and increasing the value limits of personal carriage from $2 million to $5 million. The policy has also laid out plans to make the country an international trading hub for diamonds by establishing diamond bourses across the country. “The general growth of business will eventually increase employment. However, substantial employment can be created if we are priced competitively in the international market. But, there is not enough incentive for us to expand the business,” said Sudhir Dhingra, chairman and managing director of Orient Craft. Even as leather exporters lauded the policy in part, they did not see much impact on the job front. Puran Dawar, managing director of Dawar Group, an Agra-based leather export house, said trade policy has attempted a balancing act but it would not help in checking job losses.

Shuttered factories and unemployment have become a common affair in the country's small and medium export hubs that dot the country's landscape.

Rajendra Hinduja, executive director of Gokaldas Exports, said the trade policy had been a repeat of the general budget.

Exports that account for 15 per cent of country’s GDP were booming till about a year ago registering a growth rate 25-30 per cent despite a volatile rupee. However, as the markets in EU, US and Japan started to slowdown, demand for goods from India had been hit hard. Places such as Moradabad and Baddi, famous for handicrafts exports, are languishing. Almost 60 per cent of exports from that area have perished. Small-scale exporters there have either shifted their base or changed their jobs. Workers in the factories who were once earning Rs.3,000-4,000 salary a month are now jobless and resorting to menial jobs that fetch them Rs.500-Rs. 1,000 a month.

(With inputs from Urvashi Jha and G Balachandar)