The impact is expected to be less as Russia is not integrated with the world economy on the same scale as Japan or the US, they said. "The impact of rouble devaluation will not have the same effect that devaluation of the yen or the yuan will have," an economist said. In addition, India's trade with Russia is not considered to be significant compared to trade volumes of some other countries, economists said.

However, Manubhai Shah, president, CIS Chamber of Commerce, said the devaluation will have a positive impact as imports from Russia will become cheap. Also devaluation holds out the prospect of stabilising the Russian economy which will have a positive impact on Indo-Russian trade, he said.

Ramu Deora, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), speaking to PTI, said devaluation of the rouble will improve Indian exports to CIS countries. "It is very difficult to quantify the impact so soon, everything will depend on how the Chinese and Japanese currencies move," he said.

India exports pharmaceuticals, chemicals and dyes worth $4 billion annually to CIS countries and this can be adversely affected because of the devaluation, Deora said. "I have to hear from individual exporters on cancellation of orders," he said.