If we look at the number of Bangladeshi patients seeking medical treatment in India, it will be clear how much India earns from us.
I don’t have any current data, but I can cite a report released by the Indian government in 2017. The report said, one in three foreign patients in India was from Bangladesh. Of the 460,000 inbound patients in Indian hospitals, more than 165,000 were from Bangladesh. Bangladeshis had bought over $343 million worth of services.
There’s more.
One report says that 60% of the buyers in West Bengal are from Bangladesh. Did you notice that West Bengal -- especially Kolkata -- markets during the last two Eids when the Covid-time travel restrictions were on? Their markets looked deserted.
Here in Bangladesh, the markets are normally flooded with Indian apparel during our Eids. Despite that fact, thousands of Bangladeshis still prefer to go to India for Eid shopping.
In 2017, an estimated 150,000 shoppers went to India. If the shoppers had bought goods worth at least $1,000 each, they would have ended up spending $1,170 crore. But many spend way more than that.
We are a market for many other Indian goods and products. The country earns enormously from selling these goods and products to 165 million Bangladeshis.