New Delhi, Apr 6 (KNN) The 70-member Board of Trade (BOT) headed by Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met here today after a gap of almost 3 years to discuss about the declining exports.

During the meeting, issues related to the exports and ways to deal with it were dicussed.

The board which is the top advisory body on trade, was reconstituted late last month and includes 19 members from industry and academia (non-official); 31 heads of trade and industry associations (ex-officio); and 20 top officials including 13 secretaries of the government of India, deputy governor of RBI, chairmen of railway board and National Highways Authority of India.

Apart from this, the director general of foreign trade is the member secretary of the board, a position held by Anup Wadhawan at present.

Indutry bodies like FISME, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, CII are also the ex-officio members of the BOT.

The non-official members include Apollo Tyres CMD Onkar Kanwar, Hero MotoCorp MD Pawan Munjal, ICICI Bank CMD Chanda Kochhar, Biocon MD Kiran Majumdar-Shaw, ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar and Ashok Leyland MD R Seshasayee among others.

Exports dipped 5.66% in February 2016 to $20.73 billion. On yearly basis, exports have declined from $314 billion in 2013-14 to $310 billion in 2014-15. Exports in 2015-16 are expected to shrink further to around $260 billion.

MSME contributes nearly 40 per cent to the country’s total exports. Apex industry body for MSME associations FISME raised the concerns of the MSME exporters in the country. (KNN Bureau)