Invisibles in India's balance of payments.

(From Business Line)

The country's strong BoP situation being heavily dependent on inflows under the 'invisibles' category, there is need for a positive policy thrust that facilitates the latter.

THE Reserve Bank of India renders a signal service by periodically publishing a review of data on the role of invisibles in India's Balance of Payments (BoP).

"Invisibles" are a convenient catchall term that includes transactions in services, transfers and income.

Services are the most familiar of these categories, including as they do the dominant items of software, management services, financial services and the like.

Transfers represent one-sided transactions, involving no quid pro quo, such as remittances by our compatriots abroad. Another category known as "income" is defined to include both payments and receipts - payments on account of non-residents employed in India, interest payments made to those who have deposited FCNR deposits and interest charges on loans made to India, besides dividends and profit share to investors in …