Sensai
Reading the tape…Pulling live market data…Setting the scene…
Sensai
What India actually buys and sells the world — the merchandise trade deficit, the commodities moving in and out, the biggest partners, and the strategic dependencies hiding in the tables. The raw data is public and queryable; here it's legible. Grounded in the Ministry of Commerce's own numbers.
Trade flows
The shape of India's trade — how big the gap is, what fills each side of it, and who's on the other end.
The goods gap — and the services surplus that quietly closes most of it.
As of FY 2024-25 (provisional) · Ministry of Commerce (DGCIS) — merchandise trade
India's merchandise trade deficit is driven by large imports of crude oil, electronic goods, and other items. The deficit is significant, but a substantial services surplus helps offset part of the goods trade gap. Crude oil and electronic goods are the main contributors to the deficit.
India buys far more goods than it sells — a $283 bn merchandise deficit, driven by crude oil and gold. But a services surplus of $189 bn — IT, software, business services — closes most of the gap, which is why the rupee holds up better than the goods figure alone suggests. FY 2024-25.
The biggest baskets on each side, with the year-on-year move. Toggle between imports and exports.
India imports ~85% of its oil — the single biggest reason for the trade gap.
Chips, components and finished devices — much still comes from China.
Bought as savings, not raw material — a purely import-side drain of dollars.
Industrial and electrical machinery for factories and infrastructure.
Coking coal for steel and thermal coal for power — India is short of both grades.
Bulk chemicals and pharma inputs (APIs), a key China dependency.
Palm and soya oil — India imports over half the cooking oil it eats.
Urea and DAP, underpinning the farm subsidy bill.
The largest partners by two-way trade — and whether India runs a surplus or a deficit with each.
India's largest export market — and one of the few big partners it runs a surplus with.
India's largest import source and its widest bilateral deficit by far.
A trade hub — gold and crude in, engineering and jewellery out; a free-trade-agreement partner.
The real story
The tables matter because of the concentration underneath them — the goods India can't do without, and the few countries they come from.
Critical imports and where they come from. The first supplier chip is the largest.
India relies heavily on other countries for key goods like crude oil, electronics, and pharma inputs, mainly from countries like China. This dependency can impact inflation, the rupee, and supply chains, as imports from countries like China total $102 billion, making it India's largest import partner.
~85% of India's oil is imported — the master switch on inflation and the rupee.
Learn
Ask anything about how India's trade works, then test what stuck.
Deficits, dependencies, the rupee link — explained in plain English. It teaches; it won't give trade calls.
Six questions on the concepts on this page. Did they stick?
What is the single biggest driver of India's merchandise trade deficit?
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Deficit exploded post-2022 as India became a huge buyer of discounted Russian crude.
Mostly crude oil and fertiliser flowing to India.
An electronics and machinery entrepôt for the wider region.
A top crude supplier — trade is almost entirely oil, one way.
India's gateway into Europe — refined fuels and goods; a rare surplus.
Devices, components and semiconductors — the deepest China exposure.
The 'pharmacy of the world' still imports ~70% of its bulk drug ingredients.
Bought as household savings — a pure dollar outflow with no productive use.
Over half the cooking oil Indians eat is imported — a direct kitchen-inflation lever.
Essential for steel; India has thermal coal but little coking-grade.
Urea and potash imports underpin the farm subsidy bill and food security.