India seeks rise in services exports, movement of skilled workers to Russia

India’s Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal visited Moscow for the 26th Meeting of the India-Russia Working Group on Trade & Economic Cooperation, where he met Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Vladimir Ilyichev. Both sides reviewed bilateral trade, which has risen to well over twice the leaders’ 2014 benchmark of $25 billion, and took note of the shared objective of reaching bilateral trade of $100 billion by 2030.According to the Commerce Ministry, a forward-looking protocol for trade and economic cooperation across multiple sectors was finalised and signed during the meeting.The working group operates under the aegis of the Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological, and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC).The Commerce Secretary highlighted the potential for expanding and deepening trade and proposed confidence-building measures to unlock market access.Discussed issues included expedited listing of Indian establishments and a systems-based approach with FSVPS in agriculture, especially for marine products, as well as a time-bound pathway in pharmaceuticals covering registration, regulatory reliance, and predictable timelines.The Working Group noted potential cooperation for the expansion of trade across engineering goods, chemicals & plastics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, leather, and textiles.It also mapped Indian product strengths in engineering goods, smartphones, motor vehicles, gems & jewellery, organic chemicals, textiles, and the leather sector that can support Russia’s trade de-risking and diversification.In the services sector, the Indian side encouraged greater procurement of Indian IT, healthcare, education, and creative services by Russian entities, alongside predictable mobility for Indian professionals to address labour shortages in the Russian market.India’s Global Capability Centre (GCC) ecosystem—which accounts for around 45% of global GCCs, with over 1,700 centres employing nearly 1.9 million professionals—was presented as a ready platform for Russian companies to strengthen business continuity, cybersecurity, design and analytics, and shared services, enhancing resilience in both goods and services supply chains.While the Indian delegation took note of Russia’s interest in concluding a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), both sides agreed to explore payment solutions to meet business needs, especially for medium, small, and micro enterprises (MSMEs).

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