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Informist, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Director General of Foreign Trade Lav Agarwal Tuesday called for a stronger partnership between the government and industry to translate India's export schemes and free trade agreements into actual exports. He also called for India's e-commerce exports to expand globally. 

 

"What we need to understand is the level of opportunity which exists in front of India today, because we have that inherent strength with us," he said, while speaking at the CII National Manufacturing Conclave 2026 in New Delhi. "And how do we translate that inherent strength into reality is the challenge which we need to collectively face."

 

Agarwal said government policies alone couldn't lead to required results, adding that the true measure of success would be when the initiatives are adopted by the industry at large and translate into greater competitiveness at the field levels. "What it would mean is a stronger partnership between government and private sector and the industry," he said. 

 

Agarwal highlighted that the growth in India's exports has been limited to certain clusters, adding that India's 10 states contribute to around 85% of the total exports from the country. "15 states contribute to around 95% of the total exports from this country. So what it highlights is that, if 15 states can do that much, (think of) the potential which exists for us in terms of taking across the globe," he said. Gujarat alone contributes around 25% to India's total exports, he said.

 

Agarwal called for creating an ecosystem focusing on a district and a cluster for exports, highlighting the government's intiatives of One District One Product and Geographical Indication tag. He also urged industry members to ensure the government's intiative of 'Districts as Export Hubs' actually becomes a reality. 

 

The Districts as Export Hubs initiative was launched in 2019, with the aim to harness the strengths and resources of every district and unlock its export potential. Under the scheme, each district is treated as a unit of export planning, not merely a unit of production. 

 

Talking about the government's Export Promotion Mission, Agarwal urged the industry to take the 11 components of the scheme to the grassroots level. The Export Promotion Mission is a flagship initiative of the government, aimed at strengthening India's export ecosystem through a unified, outcome-driven, and digitally enabled framework. The mission has a total outlay of INR 250.60 billion from 2025–26 (Apr-Mar) to FY31. He suggested that combining the Export Promotion Mission with the Districts as Export Hubs initiative could create a more effective export ecosystem.

 

He also urged the industry to help India take India's e-commerce export story to the global level. "We are very very successful for e-commerce trade within the country, but when it comes to global e-commerce, it is only around $5 billion, whereas China alone does $330 billion," Agarwal said.

 

He also urged the industry to translate India's free trade agreements to real field action. India has steadily expanded its network of free trade agreements over the past few years, reaching nine deals spanning 38 countries. "We want to create that framework, we want to create that need that whatever market access an agreement offers us, it will only remain in paper," he said.

 

Specifically talking about the India-UK trade agreement, Agarwal flagged that the Indian industry did not showcase the same zeal in understanding market access as the UK industry did. "I would like to submit to you the number of meetings which UK government and UK industries took from me to understand that post this agreement what is the market access they are going to get. I am sorry to say that many meetings were not taken by Indian industries," he said.  End

 

US$1 = INR 95.98

 

Reported by Pratiksha

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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