India aims to double its share in international trade within the next…

The correct answer is Option (3) → Imposing heavy export duties on domestic products

To raise its share in world trade, India has to buy and sell more across its borders. Every measure it has adopted removes a barrier to trade; a measure that puts up a barrier would work against the aim.

Option (1) Import liberalisation — A measure adopted (Incorrect). When controls on imports are removed, Indian industries can freely buy machinery, raw materials and technology from abroad. With better inputs they make better and cheaper goods, which sell more easily abroad, so imports and exports both grow.

Option (2) Reduction in import duties and delicensing — A measure adopted (Incorrect). Lower duties make imported goods and inputs cheaper, and delicensing means a firm no longer needs a government licence to trade. Less cost and less paperwork mean more goods cross the border.

Option (3) Imposing heavy export duties on domestic products — Not a measure adopted (Correct). An export duty is a tax on goods leaving the country. A heavy one makes Indian goods dearer in foreign markets, so buyers turn to cheaper goods from other countries; exports fall and India’s share of world trade shrinks — the opposite of the aim.

Option (4) Change from process to product patents. — A measure adopted (Incorrect). A process patent protects only the method of making a product, so others could make the same product another way; a product patent protects the product itself. This assures foreign firms that their goods will not be copied, so they are more willing to trade with India.