Exports could more than double by 2015: FIEO

Exports from India are back on track and could be well above $500 billion by 2015, up from the $220 billion expected in the current fiscal, according to the Federation of Indian Export Organisations.

Newly elected FIEO president Ramu S Deora said on Monday that exporters are confident they will be able to sustain the recently-gained momentum in exports.

"Exports in all industries will increase. We feel if you take 25 per cent growth, in four years we will cross $500 billion. We should target new markets now," he told newspersons in New Delhi.

Deora (incidentally, the brother of union petroleum minister Murli Deora) urged the government to act immediately on bottlenecks like infrastructure and reducing transaction cost to achieve the $500 billion milestone by 2014-15.

''A quantum leap in infrastructure investment is needed to augment installed capacity.  The present bottlenecks in various segments of infrastructure call for immediate intervention,'' Deora said.

He also said fluctuations in exchange rates hurt exporters and importers, so the government should consider full convertibility of the rupee to curb high volatility.