an analysis for india and china - icrier

about 5 per cent of total comparative advantage for India even though the sector, at the
aggregate level is not advantageously placed.
Table 5.2 : India: Top ten sectors based on the constituent number of commodities
with RCAI>1
Rank HS Code Sectors RCA f
*
%
Contribution to total
RCA
1 29 Organic chemicals 125 8.3
2 52 Cotton 92 6.1
3 62 Articles of apparel, accessories, not knit or crochet 88 5.8
4 # 84 Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, etc 71 4.7
5 72 Iron and steel 70 4.6
6 55 Manmade staple fibres 69 4.6
7 61 Articles of apparel, accessories, knit or crochet 68 4.5
8 28 Inorganic chemicals, precious metal compounds, isotopes 61 4.0
9 73 Articles of iron or steel 49 3.2
10 85 Electrical , electronic equipment 42 2.8
# Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery does not enjoy comparative advantage in the world market at the
aggregate level
*-number of constituent commodities with RCA>1
Figure 1: India: Top sectors according to RCAI and RCA (>1) f : 2003
RCAf
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
09 13 26 28 29 50 52 53 55 57 61 62 63 71 72 73 84 85 97
Sector codes (HS)
RCAf RCAI
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
RCAI
Other than cotton, no other sector that ranks among the top ten according to the
value of the RCAI is able to retain the same ranking of comparative advantage at the
constituent six-digit commodity level. The pattern of comparative advantage therefore
varies at different levels of dis-aggregation. This aspect is explored further, in the section
5.1.2.
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