Topmost among them are key decisions on removing the export ban on several commodities, including wheat and rice.

Trade Secretary G.K. Pillai last week said wheat exports of up to 2 million tons by private companies would be allowed after a new government took office.

The reelection of the governing coalition with a stronger mandate will ensure there are no hitches to formalization of that order, traders said. A new federal cabinet is expected to assume office before June 15.

The government is initially expected to allow private traders to exports 2 million tons of wheat before lifting the export ban completely.

"The policy decision on allowing wheat exports by private trade will now definitely come through," said Veena Sharma, joint secretary of the Roller Flour Millers' Federation of India.

In a significant move, the Forward Markets Commission, India's commodity futures market regulator, Friday lifted the ban on wheat futures trading in the country after a two-year halt, indicating more measures are on the way.

The federal government had suspended futures trading in wheat, rice and some pulses in early 2007, blaming speculators for the sharp rise in local commodity prices at that time.

While some government officials have ruled out subsidizing wheat exports, traders say even that can't be ruled out.

"In fact, the way government procurement is (progressing, the government) might give a subsidy for wheat exports," Sharma said, adding local prices are still higher than global prices, making exports difficult without subsidies.

The state-run Food Corporation of India has bought 22.69 million metric tons of wheat from farmers between April 1 and May 17, surpassing the figure of 22.60 million tons for the entire 2007-08 marketing year.

Such high levels of state procurement is making it difficult for FCI and other agencies to store the newly procured wheat.

The federal government had been considering a removal of the export ban even before the polls, but had deferred a decision fearing a possible backlash from voters and some leftist political parties at whose insistence the ban was put in place.

The ban on export of non-basmati rice is also likely to be scrapped, though the decision on wheat is expected to come first, industry officials said.

"Lifting the ban on rice exports will be government's top priority now. Once the cabinet is formed, we can expect a quick decision on that," said Gurnam Arora, joint managing director of Kohinoor Foods, a leading rice exporter.

He said the ban could be lifted by the end of June.

"Once the ban is lifted, we can see exports of 3 million-4 million tons of non-basmati rice this financial year," Mr. Arora said.

With the government's food grain stocks bursting at the seams, authorities will need to act quickly to offload old stocks as soon as possible, he said.

The industry is also expecting a quick decision on allowing private traders to import of white sugar at zero duty.

Earlier this year, the government had relaxed import norms to allow state-run companies to import white sugar at zero duty.

In a sign that private traders may get the same rights, federal policy makers last week decided to slash the combined duty-free white sugar import quota for state-run trading companies to 200,000 tons, from the original allocation of a million tons.

The remaining quota of 800,000 tons is now expected to be allocated to private importers.

"We are expecting the government to extend the period for duty-free import of raw sugar till Dec. 31," said Vinay Kumar, managing director of National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd.

The relaxed norms for import of raw sugar is valid till September 30, while those on white sugar is effective till Aug.1.

So far, India has mostly imported raw sugar, as higher global prices have made white sugar imports difficult.

Traders said the return of the Congress Party government has also ended speculation on whether a new federal government may ban futures trading in sugar, after prices surged earlier this year.

Although the previous government had said there was no move to ban trading, opposition parties had demanded a ban, arguing speculators were fueling the rally in sugar prices.

Market participants are now optimistic the role of the commodity markets regulator will be strengthened, as a legislation for this was already in the pipeline.

Such a move could lead to a quickly revival of the derivatives market in the country.

A bill to amend the Forward Contract Regulation Act (FCRA) was introduced in the parliament last year, but it couldn't be passed because of political opposition from some groups.

"We hope the (FCRA) amendment will be expedited and it is very necessary at this stage to strengthen the regulator," said Rajeev Agarwal, a member of Forward Markets Commission.

Amending FCRA would provide autonomy to FMC, along the lines of the power enjoyed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the country's stock market regulator. It will allow FMC to punish errant market intermediaries and introduce options trading in commodities.

Write to Arpan Mukherjee at arpan.mukherjee@dowjones.com, Swansy Afonso at swansy.afonso@dowjones.com and Debiprasad Nayak at debi.nayak@dowjones.com