Commerce Min plans smartphone 'apps' for exporters, importers

NEW DELHI: In sync with the government's drive to harness technology, the Commerce Ministry is planning to come up with mobile apps for exporters and importers.

While the " FTP App" will help traders to go through the voluminous book on India's foreign trade policy on their smartphones or notebooks, "EXIM (export-import) App" would help them in filling different documents such as shipping bills and other paperwork, a senior official in the Commerce Ministry said.

"Initial discussions are on with different departments, including Revenue, for the purpose. The apps would be developed by private players," the official said, adding that these apps will help exporters in reducing transactions cost as they can do a lot of paperwork on their smartphones and notebooks.

This will form part of a series of steps which the government is taking to improve India's ranking in ease of doing business index.

The government had recently announced an umbrella programme 'Digital India' comprising various projects worth about Rs 1 lakh crore to transform the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy.

The programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology.

The vision of the government under Digital India project includes creation of ICT infrastructure like high-speed Internet at gram panchayat level, on demand availability of government services like health, education etc, and digital empowerment of citizens, especially through digital literacy.

Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) is expected to be announced by month-end.