No, it is not engineering goods or jewellery; it is human beings. The money they sent back in 2017 was $69 billion; it financed 43 per cent of the trade deficit. India received more in remittances than any other country. Over a half of it came from oil-producing countries, to whose idle rich India provides white- and blue-collar workers; over a quarter came from just the United Arab Emirates. Over a fifth came from the United States of America, which continues to use Indian programmers despite Trump. A half of the remittances went to Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Three-quarters of the money was paid by remitters to dalals -- "exchange houses' in the terminology of the Reserve Bank of India -- who have accounts with Indian banks; they send the money to the accounts of the remitters' beneficiaries once the dalal deposits the money with them. Another fifth came through Vostro accounts of foreign banks with Indian banks.


Read Ashok V Desai's column here.