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Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday said that he was confident India would meet its $1 trillion target in exports in 2026-27 (FY27), despite global trade slowing. The target is nearly 16 per cent more than last year’s record of $863 billion.
“I am confident looking at the first half numbers that we will get there,” he said.
Speaking at the curtain raiser for the 31st CII Partnership Summit, Goyal said the target was being set at a time when global growth is expected to slip below 3 per cent and international trade is projected to grow only 2.5-3 per cent.
He credited the country’s 63 million Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), global capability centres, and about 250,000 startups for the momentum. “It’s not the government which has set the target, it is the people of India, the businesses of India,” he added.
“India began building bridges when the world is building walls,” the minister said. “We have set unto ourselves a big growth jump in exports and decided we will look at a trillion dollars of exports in the current year,” Goyal added.
According to commerce ministry data, India’s total exports between April and August this year are estimated at $399.27 billion.
Goyal said India had concluded nine free trade agreements (FTAs) with 38 developed countries in the past four and a half years. Together these countries account for $60 trillion of global gross domestic product (GDP), as compared to the FTAs signed with countries before 2014, which accounted for only $10 trillion of global GDP.
“There was a time when we were afraid to engage with the developed world. We were defensive in our approach,” he said.
He added that the agreements also open export markets for farm goods, marine products, and engineering and electronic goods made by small firms.
“Every agreement that we have entered into, protects the sensitive sectors, particularly of Indian agriculture, our fishermen, our MSMEs.”
Pointing to the Reserve Bank of India’s upgraded growth forecast of 7.1 per cent on Wednesday, Goyal said he expected growth of more than 7 per cent this year. He also said the economy was on track to grow from $4 trillion now to $30 trillion by 2047.
He urged the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to set up FTA utilisation desks in all its state councils, which would help MSMEs understand the market, access opportunities and rules of origin, and join trade delegations abroad.
Goyal said India would adopt the best global technologies rather than fear them. “Gone are the days when India would worry that new technologies may land up in creating job losses,” he said.
“Today we have the courage of conviction that each of these technologies is going to provide new opportunities for our talented youth.” He said opportunities would come through higher productivity, more competitive goods and services, and jobs in cybersecurity and application development.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose state hosts the summit in Visakhapatnam on November 12-13, said the state would launch an escrow account for industrial incentives at the event.
Naidu also listed a pipeline of upcoming projects, including 5 gigawatts (Gw) of additional data centre capacity in Visakhapatnam, a 10,000 acre semiconductor ecosystem in Tirupati, and a quantum computer launch at Amaravati in February 2027.
The state aims to export green hydrogen and ammonia, and plans to contribute atleast 160 Gw to India’s 500 Gw renewable energy target, with about 110 GW already underway.
Naidu said the state aims to become India’s “gateway to Southeast Asia” through integrated ports, airports, roads and rail.
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