Merchandise exports drop 60% in April

India’s overall exports, which includes both merchandise and services, dropped 36.65 per cent in April while imports fell by 47.36 per cent against the year ago month. Exports stood at $27.96 billion and overall imports were estimated to be $27.80 billion, with a trade surplus of 10.16 billion against a deficit of $8.67 billion in April 2019.

Merchandise exports dropped 60.28 per cent to $10.36 billion as compared to $26.07 billion in April 2019. In rupee terms, exports were Rs

78,951.41 crore compared to Rs

1,81,021.34 crore in April 2019, registering a negative growth of 56.39 per cent. Except for iron ore and drugs & pharmaceuticals, which registered a growth of 17.53 per cent and 0.25 per cent, respectively, all other commodity/commodity groups negative growth.

Among major commodity groups gems & jewellery was down 98.74 per cent, leather & leather products 93.28 per cent, ready-made garments 91.04 per cent and petroleum products

66.22 per cent. The trade deficit in merchandise was estimated at $6.76 billion against $15.33 billion in April

2019. Imports were down 58.65 per cent to $17.12 billion. registered

"If everything goes as we hope, it will take 24 months before we have a vaccine."

But experts have said no vaccine is expected to be ready for use until at least 2021, as they must be widely tested in humans before being administered to hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people to prevent infection.

Narasimhan, who headed development at Novartis's vaccine business before it was sold off, said producing enough vaccine for the world would also be a challenge.