India has solidified its position as the fourth-largest exporter of digitally delivered services worldwide, making a substantial contribution to the global trade in services.
According to the latest Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India's exports of digitally delivered services soared to $257 billion in 2023, registering a notable 17% increase compared to the preceding year.
The report highlights a significant surge in global exports of digitally delivered services, which reached a staggering $4.25 trillion in 2023, marking a robust 9% year-on-year growth. This accounted for a substantial 13.8% of world exports of goods and services.
Despite a decline in global trade in goods across all regions, exports of digitally delivered services continued to thrive. Notably, Europe and Asia, collectively holding a substantial global share of 76.2%, witnessed export growth rates of 11% and 9%, respectively.
In terms of service categories, business, professional, and technical services emerged as the dominant contributors to global exports of digitally delivered services, comprising 41.2% of the total. They were followed by computer services (20.5%), financial services (16%), intellectual property-related services (10.9%), insurance and pension services (5.2%), telecommunications services (2.6%), audio-visual and other personal, cultural, and recreational services (2.1%), and information services (1.5%).
The report also highlighted a significant uptick in the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including AI models capable of generating diverse content such as text, images, music, and videos.
