According to Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal, India, a digital economy with the benefit of the “Giant Trinity” (1.3 billion Aadhar cards, over 1 billion bank accounts, and mobile phones), should go paperless in international trade to significantly reduce logistics costs, speed up ship turnaround times, and improve the effectiveness of current port infrastructure.
While the nation of India has actively embraced technology and digitization and has a strong belief in its power, he said the country still relied largely on paper papers for cross-border trade.India should go paperless in international trade to drastically reduce costs, as it has the advantage of the “Giant Trinity” (1.3 billion Aadhar cards, over 1 billion bank accounts, and mobile phones). logistics costs, improve turnaround time of ships and enhance the efficiency of existing port infrastructure, said Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal.
While India as a country has believed in the power of technology and has been actively deploying technology and digitisation, the country still depended heavily on paper documents when it came to cross-border trade, he said.
“We have millions of MSMEs who produce various products. Individuals, groups and families engage in handcraft, handmade-products, artifacts etc. They should be able to sell their items to families in Canada, U.K. and U.S. with ease. That’s when we can say technology is helping us to make cross border trade inclusive,’‘ the Commerce Secretary further said.
