NEW DELHI, April 13: Women who want to stand out at the next party can now take recourse to designer bindis and kumkum produced abroad. Ramakrishna Hegde has freed the import of bindis, kumkum and sindoor. It is, of course, another matter whether the right bindis will arrive from foreign shores to go with your Versace, Cartier and Manolo Blahniks.Despite its strident swadeshi announcements the most traditional items of adornment used by women in India can now be made by foreign hands. The foreign hand is now so much closer to Indian women!
These items for women have been the preserve of the small scale sector. It is is difficult to gauge at the moment the impact of allowing free imports in this area for they might prove to be unattractive for the hi-tech producers in the West.
Even water including natural water has been put on the list of items freely importable. Mineral and aerated waters can be imported against special import licences. Nothing can be more anti-swadeshi than allowing the import ofdrinking water, remarked a high-level bureaucrat.
The import of handcarts and rickshaws has also been freed. One wonders whether this would hit the small scale manufacturer of these goods or better manufactured rickshaws will help to improve the lot of the poor users of these items who has been hitherto ignored by Indian industry.
Hegde, like his predecessors in the last couple of governments, has decided that the country's commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on removing what are known as `quantitative restrictions', come first. The United Front (UF) government had transferred around 450 items to the open general list earlier.
His modified Exim policy, announced here today, has shifted nearly 340 items from the restricted lists of imports to the open general license -- some others are to be shifted from the restricted to the special import license list.
The list of items in the open general license (OGL) list, in fact, includes seral marine and agricultural items like shrimps, onions,canned vegetables, and fruits such as peaches and strawberries. Apple and other juices can also be imported freely, though mineral waters still need some sort of license.
The amendments to the Exim policy appears to have opened the floodgates for entry of a large number of consumer goods, even where it seems Indian companies have a strong presence. Among the products permitted free entry are washing, cleaning and degreasing preparations, toilet soaps, medicated soaps and shaving creams.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
