Startups are at the forefront of innovation, driving advances that increase efficiency, enabling growth, and prosperity. To further boost the startup ecosystem, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Chamber of Commerce, organized an outreach programme on Export Controls focusing on start-ups in various sectors of the economy.
The outreach aimed to raise awareness about export regulations for sensitive, dual-use goods and technology. The webinar drew about 200 people from various industries and businesses, including several start-ups.
The outreach shared the relevance of export control systems in the context of India’s integration with the global economy, international non-proliferation framework, and the Government’s flagship initiatives of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’. The presentations and discussions covered national laws, regulations, implementation mechanisms, procedures, as well as the importance of industry-level measures to uphold India’s impeccable non-proliferation record, acknowledged globally.
It also included the participation of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade as part of ongoing industry outreach endeavors of the Indian Government towards a sound national export control system in line with global standards.
What are export controls?
Export controls are restrictions imposed by any individual, company, government, or public body on the transfer of items from one country to another. These controls are in place to mitigate the risks associated with exporting specific goods to specific countries.
The rationale behind such controls is to prevent any illegitimate trade in dual-use goods, services, and technology, which has potential applications to the development, production, and deployment of weapons of mass destruction, missiles, and conventional arms, from falling into the hands of terrorists or terrorist organisations, while allowing legitimate trade in these strategic items.
The Indian export control list was notified for the first time in 1995, and it has since been amended several times to align the national export control list with the control lists of four multilateral export control regimes.
The Indian export control list includes specific chemicals, engineering goods, high-tech goods, software, etc. The industrial or service sectors included in export control lists are the aerospace sector, chemical and biotechnology sector, nuclear sector, engineering goods sector, software sector, high technology research institutions, pharmaceutical sector, etc.
