Impact of Efficiency on the Value of Trade: Leadership Role of Major Ports in India

Ports and shipping of India still plays an important leadership role in international trade, despite the tremendous growth of the other alternative major mode and means of transport such as airways. This is because, it presently comprises almost 70% of the total value of trade of world trade, even in the post liberalisation period, despite the growth of air transport. However, in this era of globalisation, with a gradual shift to a more outward oriented trade regime, there has been a massive expansion in the volume of India’s sea borne trade, together with a change in the composition of Indian port traffic from break bulk to liquid bulk, dry bulk and containerized cargo, with a decisive shift towards containerization in the mode of cargo delivery in post 1990s. In order to cope up with the above mentioned challenge, coupled with the growth of world class infrastructure in response to the emerging trend in global sea–trade and shipping trends, this paper therefore assess statistically how far the physical performance of the port, measured in terms of its productivity affects trade performance of the port of India, measured in terms of both the absolute and relative value of trade. While doing so, a comparative study between the ports of Western and Eastern coasts also has been attempted to judge the performance of the coasts in this respect from the leadership viewpoint.