Inaugurating a Chintan Shivir on Professional Services at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi on 23rd December, the Secretary called for adoption of global best practices to equip professionals with upgraded skills aligned with evolving global market needs and technological developments to leverage India’s demographic dividend in meeting the rising global demand for professional services.
Stating that greater openness in international trade in professional services would enhance competitiveness of India’s economy, Agrawal encouraged professional bodies to incentivise and enable knowledge sharing to provide platforms for enhanced collaboration.
He underscored the importance of services trade for India’s economic growth, noting its strong contribution to domestic value addition vis-à-vis merchandise exports. India's total exports had grown by 6.01% to reach a record $824.9 billion in FY 2024-25, up from $778.1 billion in FY 2023-24. Services exports continued to drive the growth momentum, reaching a historic high of $387.5 billion in FY 2024-25, up 13.6% from $341.1 billion in the previous financial year.
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India’s share in global services exports has been steadily rising for the last two decades, and the country ranks seventh as it represents 4.3% share in the global services export. Services sector is around 50% of India's GDP, and includes trade, tourism, aviation, telecom, shipping, ports, communication and storage, financing, insurance, transportation, real estate, business services, software services, IT-BPM, etc.
India is the fifth-largest recipient of FDI inflows in the world, with the services sector ranking among the highest FDI recipients. From April 2000 to June 2024, the sector’s FDI inflows clocked $122 billion, accounting for over 16.34% of the India's total FDI inflows.
The Chintan Shivir was organised by the The Department of Commerce (DoC) in association with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Services Exports Promotion Council (SEPC) under the theme “Expanding Global Horizons: Opportunities for Indian Professionals”.
The Chintan Shivir was organised into four sessions: (a) Making Globally Ready Professionals; (b) Strengthening International Mobility through MRAs and MoUs; (c) Developing Networks – Formation and Expansion of Professional Chapters Abroad; and (d) Leveraging FTAs for Boosting Professional Services Exports.
On leveraging FTAs, discussions focused on future-proofing the digital delivery of professional services, in addition to mobility-related provisions and horizontal domestic regulations related to qualification requirements and procedures. Emphasis was placed on the need for greater openness within the Indian professional services landscape to foreign professionals practising in India. Issues related to data privacy and protection, as well as opportunities arising from foreign universities setting up branches in India, were also discussed.
