India, Jan. 27 -- As India approaches Budget 2026, its trade and export strategy stands at a critical juncture. The global economy is being reshaped by supply-chain reconfiguration, sustainability-linked regulations, and intensifying geopolitical competition. For India, this moment presents both opportunity and risk. While the country has expanded its export base and deepened its integration with global markets in recent years, sustaining this momentum will require careful alignment of short-term macroeconomic management with long-term structural reforms.

At the heart of near-term export performance lies a factor often underappreciated in policy debates: external price competitiveness. Empirical evidence clearly shows that movements in t...