Russian companies plan to buy more from India to blunt both Western sanctions and utilise the surplus INR to good effect, the head of the Indian export organisation said on Tuesday.
"Following Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India with his business delegation, a lot of Russian companies are in touch with Indian companies seeking to buy more from India. Many of them are planning to visit India in January to take their plans forward," Ajay Sahai, the Director General and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the New Delhi-based Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said.
"There is big interest in items such as food and agriculture, home textiles, footwear, engineering goods, IT and ITES and logistics. FIEO, too, would mount two delegations to Russia over the next couple of months," he added.
Over 90% of India-Russia trade is now being settled in national currencies, which means that Russia has a surplus of INR running into billions of dollars.
After all, India's exports to Russia were estimated to be only worth $4.9 billion while its imports from the Eurasian nation stood at $63.8 billion during the last financial year.
To turn around the massive trade deficit of about $59 billion, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal underscored the need to diversify the trade basket.
"We need to bring more diversity in our trade basket. We need to make it more balanced, inter-state Russia and India. We need to add more variety. And there's so much to offer between both countries," he said at the India-Russia Business Forum in New Delhi this month.