India and Central Asia Trade Routes and Trade Potential

In an environment of increasing importance of South–South bilateral trade partnerships, we assess the potential for improving bilateral trade between India and five Central Asian countries in this paper, and construct a trade potential index. We find huge untapped potential for increasing trade, and that India and Central Asia would benefit from policies that encourage trade, including bilateral and regional trade agreements. One of the constraints of trade is a political problem in the countries that fall in the trade route. Hence, we explore the possibility of alternative routes and find that trade via Iran could be viable.