Trade is not an end in itself, but a means to economic growth and national development.
The primary purpose is not the mere earnings of foreign exchange, but the stimulation of greater economic activity. Economies of scale, international specialization and also the fruits of scientific and technical progress in the world become more easily available through the foreign trade.

The India’s telecom sector, which has seen a dramatic growth within the country, is becoming outward looking. For encouraging the growth in this sector, the Government will establish an Export Promotion Council for telecom in partnership with the private sector. The information technology sector would be brought under the special focus initiative this year, with specific items in the sector being made eligible under the High Tech Product Export Promotion Scheme. This would enable funds to be specifically earmarked for this sector under the Market Development Assistance (MDA) and Market Access Initiatives (MAI). Fiscal incentives available to units in Industrial Parks Scheme have been extended to the IT, ITeS and R&D in natural sciences. Government will spend money under the Market Development Assistance Initiative for making the IT hardware sector as a focus area.

To address the structural constraints that exporters face, a joint task force (JTF) will be integrated to address these issues.  JTF would have representation from the Central and State Governments, local bodies, industry and exporters to evolve a detailed action plan to achieve this objective. The JTF will be mandated to look at:
1. Development of world-class infrastructure to facilitate trade involving  an investment of over $800 billion.

2. Ensuring measures for trade facilitation through EDI to match world-class standards.

3. Development of global manufacturing hubs in selected sectors such as auto components, gems and jewellery, textiles, petro-products etc.

4. Development of global services hubs in IT, Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KCPO), industrial design, R&D and product testing.

5. Development of a chain of sector-specific development institutes.

6. Encouraging ecommerce through e-governance.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are proving to be key engines of export growth. Other measures announced include treating of all electronic data interchange (EDI) ports as single port, reduction in application fee for duty credit scrip’s and EPCG authorization, reduction of application fee for the importer and exporter code and a joint task force to plan an integrated trade strategy to address the structural problems of exporters. Also, export on consignment basis has been extended to colored gem stones. Moreover, waste or scrap generated during manufacturing in an SEZ can be freely disposed in a domestic tariff area (DTA).

Further, measures such as extending DEPB (Duty Entitlement Pass Book) Scheme, extending Income tax benefit to EOUs (export-oriented units), providing duty credit benefit for encouraging exports of toys and sports goods, extending interest subvention, extending focus market scheme to 10 more countries are expected to give some boost to exports as well as employment. The final supplement to FTP tries to balance between, rising inflation, appreciation of rupees and export growth and the result is remarkably good foreign trade policy.