India'S Sub Regional Economic Integration in Asia-An Analysis

The proliferation of a large number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) in the post-WTO era rapidly changing the global trade flows between nations. Taking cue from this global trend, India initiated many bilateral and regional economic cooperation agreements particularly with Asian countries who are the major drivers of the global economic growth. India is the dominant member of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), FTA partner with ASEAN and actively pursuing an RTA with BIMSTEC. For a Regional Trade Agreement to be successful, the participating countries should have complementary trade structure. The paper looks into the trade structure of India with ASEAN, SAARC and BIMSTEC countries to identify complementary sectors and product groups for enhanced trade cooperation. Trade indices such as Trade Intensity Index (TII) and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) are constructed at product group levels to get trade complementarity and Similarity. The paper concludes that there is trade potential exists between India and sub-regional groups in Asia and active persuasion these integration efforts help India to consolidate its position in the geopolitical and economic affairs of the region and emerge as the leader in this Asian century