New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- Tracking the news from the 18th BRICS summit at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, one question kept coming to mind: will any of the declarations adopted at the summit help Indian MSMEs? And will they remain on paper or will be implemented on ground as well?
Looking beyond the photo-ops and declarations, I see three developments that stand out for Indian MSMEs trying to survive an increasingly volatile global trade environment.
First is the growing challenge of environmental trade barriers. The BRICS New Delhi Declaration explicitly opposed unilateral, punitive, discriminatory and protectionist measures such as carbon border adjustment mechanisms. For Indian exporters in sectors such as steel, engineering and auto componen...