The commerce Ministry has initiated an exercise to identify required infrastructure needs, potential sectors, and clusters which would help the country achieve the $1 trillion merchandise exports target by 2030 but sustainability will be a major concern going forward, senior government officials said on Thursday.
This comes a day after the European Parliament voted on Wednesday for a new law that will require larger companies operating in the bloc to check if their supply chains use forced labour or cause environmental damage and act to take action if they do. EU lawmakers backed the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) by 374 votes to 235 against, with 19 abstentions, Reuters reported.
Prior to CSDDD, the European Union enforced the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), another environment related law that penalises products with high carbon footprints coming into the 27-member bloc. Notably, more than a fourth of India’s exports of iron, steel and aluminium were to the EU and as per industry estimates, the EU tariffs could raise the costs of Indian exports by 20 to 35 per cent.