India's engineering services exports surge nearly eightfold to USD 13.8 billion in a decade: NITI Aayog
A NITI Aayog report titled on regulatory regimes in professional services found that India's engineering services exports rose nearly eightfold over a decade, from about USD 1.77 billion in 2014-15 to USD 13.77 billion in 2024-25.
This growth translates to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 22.8% over the ten-year period, while imports of engineering services stayed comparatively stable.
The report recommended establishing a central statutory framework for engineers engaged in construction and infrastructure-related work, to set minimum standards, a code of ethics, and accountability mechanisms.
It also proposed formally recognising architects and engineers as "allied professionals" to remove regulatory overlap and ambiguity, citing regulatory models used in other countries such as Singapore.
The report set out a broader roadmap for strengthening India's professional and engineering services exports through improved regulatory design.
Services Trade and Balance of Payments Classification
Engineering services exports fall under India's services trade, which is recorded in the Balance of Payments (BoP) under the "invisibles" account alongside other services like IT, business process management, travel, and transport. Services exports are tracked by the Reserve Bank of India through BoP statistics and complement India's goods trade data compiled by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S).
Key Details
- Under the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS, 1995), services trade is classified into four modes: Mode 1 (cross-border supply), Mode 2 (consumption abroad), Mode 3 (commercial presence), and Mode 4 (movement of natural persons).
- Engineering and consultancy services typically move via Mode 1 (remote/cross-border delivery) and Mode 4 (professionals deployed on-site abroad).
- India's overall services exports crossed roughly USD 340+ billion in recent years, making India one of the top service-exporting economies globally, behind the US.
- Engineering services (design, consultancy, project management for infrastructure) are a sub-category within India's broader "other business services" exports.
The near eightfold rise in engineering services exports reflects India's growing competitiveness in Mode 1/Mode 4 professional services exports, an area NITI Aayog's report singles out as under-leveraged relative to India's engineering talent pool.
NITI Aayog's Role and Statutory Regulation of Professions
NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India), established in January 2015 replacing the Planning Commission, functions as the government's premier policy think tank, producing sectoral reports and roadmaps without the fund-allocation powers its predecessor held. Its recommendation for a central statutory framework for engineers draws a parallel with existing profession-specific regulators.
Key Details
- NITI Aayog was constituted by a Cabinet resolution (not a statute) on 1 January 2015; it has an advisory, not executive, mandate.
- Existing profession-specific statutory bodies include the Institution of Engineers (India), established under a Royal Charter, and internationally, licensing bodies for architects (Council of Architecture, under the Architects Act, 1972) — engineers in India currently lack an equivalent central statutory licensing regime.
- A statutory framework, unlike a voluntary association, would carry legal force for setting standards, codes of conduct, and disciplinary accountability, similar to how the Bar Council of India regulates advocates or the Medical Council structure (now National Medical Commission) regulates doctors.
- The report frames such a framework as important for public safety, given engineers' role in structural and infrastructure work.
NITI Aayog's proposal to create statutory oversight for engineers is presented as a lever to sustain the sector's export growth by improving quality assurance and international credibility of Indian engineering services.
- India's engineering services exports grew from about USD 1.77 billion (2014-15) to USD 13.77 billion (2024-25), a nearly eightfold rise.
- The growth represents a CAGR of approximately 22.8% over the decade.
- NITI Aayog was established on 1 January 2015 via Cabinet resolution, replacing the Planning Commission.
- The GATS framework classifies services trade into four modes of supply; engineering services largely move via Mode 1 (cross-border) and Mode 4 (movement of professionals).