This is the year of Russia in India, and Russian officials lament that not enough is being done to celebrate the fact or at least it is not ?visible? enough. Emotions still hark back to the Raj Kapoor era among Russian and Indian intellectuals, when his movies were popular in the then Soviet Union.
India and Russia had buoyant trade relations in Russia?s Soviet days, according to a Ficci report. In 1992 the financial foundation of Soviet-era co-operation between the two countries ended. This was the rupee-ruble exchange system under which prices and payments were designated in rubles and rupees according to a mutually agreed rate of exchange. “After the end of this system in 1992, the outstanding amount was to be paid off by India in a staggered manner in goods. However, the system did not work out according to schedule and there is still some left over of the outstanding amount,” according to the report.
As a result of the pre-1991 cooperation, linkages exist between India and Russia in a cross-section of industries such as coal, heavy electrical industries? machinery, natural gas exploration and refining. Being among the emerging economies, India?s trade with all the leading economies of the world has gone up, many times over. However, India?s trade relations with Russia depict a state of lethargy with bilateral trade inching up from $1,339 million in1996-97 to $1,406 million in 2000-01, and further to $1,954 million in 2004-05, according to the report. The year 2005-06 did see a jump in total trade by about 40% over the previous year, but with a small base of $1,954 million in 2004-05 total trade in 2005-06 was only about $2,755 million. In the year 2006-07, India-Russia bilateral trade registered a growth of 20% and total trade touched $3,312 million.
At a recent video conference between Indian and Russian academics, industry representatives, in the Capital, the need to have more contacts and events related to Indo-Russia relations, apart from trade was stated. A certain lack of pace has created anxiety on the Russian side. The slow growth in both exports to Russia and imports from Russia causes concern. India?s exports to Russia never crossed the $1 billion mark in even a single year during the period 1996-97 to 2006-07.
India?s imports from Russia too hovered around $ 500 million to $ 600 million during the period 1996-97 to 2003-04. It was only in the year 2003-04 that India?s imports from Russia showed an appreciable increase over the previous year?s figure – a trend that was maintained in the following years, says the report. What is notable is that while India-Russia trade today stands at a minuscule $3.3 billion, trade between Russia and China in 2006 was of the order of $ 33.4 billion.