The government is aiming at boosting Indian services in the global market. (Representational image)

To boost trade exchange in services between India and the world, the commerce ministry is looking to attract investments and partnerships in strategic areas including financial management and accounting, telecom projects, aviation and space programme, content, media distribution, infrastructure, outsourcing publishing work, intellectual property management services etc. in its annual Global Exhibition on Services (GES) event later in November in Bengaluru. The government is aiming at boosting Indian services in the global market by focusing on 12 services sectors and seeing participation from 100 countries.

The government, through GES, “seeks to enhance strategic cooperation and develop synergies to strengthen multilateral relationships between all stakeholders, tap the potential for services exports and increase FDI inflow,” the commerce ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Esports will also be the key market in focus by commerce ministry’s export promotion council — Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC). Esports market will likely grow from $655 million global revenue in 2017 to nearly $1.8 billion by 2022 even as the fanbase of esports is expected to grow from 270 million in 2016 to 495 million in 2020. Esports federations from Indonesia, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Korea are expected to be part of the annual event.

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The government through Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and Department of Commerce has been looking to boost exports by incentivizing service exporters through the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS), the ministry said. The scheme was launched in the Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020 under which incentives to such exporters was worth Rs 4262.80 crore in FY19. For instance, duty credit scrips to be used for payment of customs duty on imported goods imported. The scrips are also freely transferable and hence can be sold in open market if an exporter is not unable to use them. Activity in the service sector, however, went down for the second straight month in October, according to the IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index, to 49.2 due to subdued demand conditions, competitive pressure and a fragile economic situation, the report said.