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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Preliminary data indicates that India’s services exports exceeded its goods exports for November 2024. Services exports clocked in at $35.7 billion this month—about $3 billion more than goods exports.

If confirmed by the final figures, and if this trend continues, it will mark a historic shift, one almost three decades in the making. At the global level, while India’s goods exports have been one of missed opportunities, services exports have an undertone of opportunity taken, driven by IT and software services. India’s share in global services exports has consistently exceeded its share in global goods exports since at least 1998.

While the latter flattened after the 2008 global financial crisis, ranging from 1.25-1.90%, the share in service exports continued its upward climb, to 4.2% by 2023. Also Read: Services offer a fast and reliable path to economic development China is a study in contrast to India. Its share in global good exports took off around 2002, increasing to about 13.7% in 2023, according to World Bank data.

Interestingly, China’s share in services exports peaked in 2002, which is also when its goods exports took off. Since then, it has declined, and last year, fell below India’s for the first time. While China’s success in goods exports has generated millions of new jobs, the effect the services export boom has had on Indian employment has arguably been weaker in terms of numbers.

Still, in post-1991 India, services exports have been a big success story, building businesses, fostering entrepreneurship, generating jobs and creating wealth. India’s success is partly because of the second big shift that has occurred within services exports. By 2022-23, two sectors,