Shri Piyush Goyal interacts with Export Promotion Councils and representatives of Industry associations, stresses on a ‘Whole of Govt’ approach to boost exports


Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textile Shri Piyush Goyal reviewed the Export scenario in his interaction with Export Promotion Councils (EPCs) and representatives of Industry associations at New Delhi today.


Shri Goyal emphasized on a ‘Whole of Govt’ approach to boost exports. The Minister said this would require exporters, EPCs, Govt Agencies & Indian Missions abroad to work together.


Recognizing the crucial role played by EPCs and Industry, Shri Goyal remarked that EPCs & Industry Associations are key to realise “Local goes Global: India makes for the World”.


Speaking to EPCs and Industry representatives, Minister stated that the ball is in our court and we have to be ready to take on global competition. He said that Government is doing its best through various measures to support Indian exporters to compete globally. Enumerating initiatives taken, he highlighted that with Gati Shakti, government is improving connectivity and logistics. Government is also negotiating to sign more FTAs with important trade partners. This will have a direct impact in providing a level playing field in international markets, he added. He emphasized that everybody will have to work hard to achieve true potential of India in terms of global trade.   


Expressing confidence that we are on track to meet expectations of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Shri Goyal said that the country touched highest ever merchandise exports of $ 422 billion and all-time total exports of $ 667 billion – an increase of 34.5% over FY 21. By July’22, exports have reached $156 bn (19% higher) – Engineering goods exports $38 bn (8% higher); Readymade garment (22% higher). Agri exports grew by almost 20% till July’22, driven by rice, marine products & sugar.


Stating that the Government has been increasing its international engagement, the Minister underlined the importance of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In this context, he urged the industry representatives to study FTAs and identify the areas which have competitive advantage. He hoped for an agreement on a multidimensional partnership with UK this year.  Minister also appealed to representatives from the industry to take advantage of PM Gati Shakti, PLI, NSWS, EoDB reforms to improve export competitiveness wrt to other manufacturing powerhouses. 


Har Ghar Tiranga campaign


Commerce and Industry Minister urged all the stakeholders in the export ecosystem to take the message of Har Ghar Tiranga to every nook and corner of the country. He urged industry to unite and work together to keep our flag flying high and make this campaign a grand success. Textile Secretary Shri U P Singh informed that the Ministry is working with a select group of private companies to supply 6 crore flags to state governments and Department of Post by 12th August. He said 5.12 crore flags have already been produced.


One District One Product (ODOP)


During the interaction today, Minister launched the ODOP catalogue of over 300 products. He appealed to the people to use ODOP portal and buy products from there. This will directly help Indian artisans and families and also help revive dying arts of India. He mentioned that PM has repeatedly asked the nations to use these ODOP products as festival gifts and cooperate gifts, and PM himself uses these products for gifting purposes.


Master Database of all Associations/EPCs– Shri Goyal asked all stakeholders to prepare a database of the industry associations/EPCs over the country along with their members, employees & other basic details. 


Presentation was made on National Single window system. This scheme is being run by Ministry of Commerce and Industry to facilitate ease of doing business. Since its inception last year, 10k approvals have already been given under it.


In his initial presentation Commerce Secretary Shri B V R Subramanyam said that all stakeholders in the export ecosystem worked really hard last year and achieved the target 9 days ahead of scheduled end of the year. He said that everyone will have to contribute to keep the momentum going.


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Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles felicitates 126 Exporters at 23rd Handicrafts Export Awards


The handicrafts sectors needs a fresh, ambitious vision that takes it new heights with ambitious targets, and the country should not be satisfied with the 29% increase in exports achieved in 2021-22, said Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution while delivering the address at the 23rd Handicrafts Export Awards Function here today.


Shri Goyal said the increase in exports of handicrafts from 25,680 crore in 2020-21 to Rs. 33,253 crore in 2021-22 shouldn’t be the benchmark as the sector has tremendous capacity to strengthen its export targets further. He called upon the award winners to stress on quality, consistency, design and branding to create an ecosystem where multifold increase in the sector could be made possible.  Citing a number of examples including that of solar charkha, the textile minister urged the exporters to focus on innovation to drive the growth in the sector.





He cited the rapid rise of Tiruppur, which had grown dramatically in recent decades and said exports of handicrafts could take a quantum leap.


He emphasized that Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi is the brand ambassador of India’s handloom sector as he is seen wearing some of the artistically woven clothes. He said that during PM’s visit to other nations, mostly Indian handicraft products are gifted. Similar practice is being followed by nearly 200 Indian Missions abroad.





Shri Goyal said that the Ministry of Textiles has a database of 30 lakh artisans and if we could focus on increasing the income of the artisan by even Rs. 1000 per month, it could lead to transformation in their lives. He suggested that artisans can be linked with GeM. Also, the mandatory clause of GST registration could be worked upon so as to bring the artisans on board on e-commerce platforms. Emphasizing the big opportunity created by Free Trade Agreements with UAE and Australia, the textile minister suggested that the artisans could be provided a platform in the Dubai Expo Centre for showcasing their products and organizing buyer-seller meets.



He also complimented EPCH work for past three and a half decades to promote & boost exports.


The award function recognise exporters for their outstanding performance during the years 2017-18 and 2018-19. The evening saw a huge gathering of India’s handicraft exporters from all parts of India along with Mr. Raj K Malhotra, Chairman, EPCH; Vice Chairman, EPCH – Shri Kamal Soni; Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Director General, EPCH and Chairman, India Exposition Mart Ltd.; members of EPCH’s Committee of Administration.





Shri Goyal along with Smt. DarshanaVikramJardosh, Union Minister of State for Textiles and Railways gave away the awards. The occasion was also graced by Shri Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles and was presided by Shri Shantmanu, IAS, Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India.


Smt. DarshanaVikramJardosh, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Textiles and Railways said that it’s significant to promote and support the artisans. She applauded that EPCH through its exhibitions ensures promotion of small artisans.







Shri Upendra Prasad Singh, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, congratulated the winners. He said even during COVID pandemic, Handicrafts export continued to grow. He also emphasisied that nearly 70 lakh people in the country are directly or indirectly connected with Handicrafts.


Shri Raj Kumar Malhotra, Chairman, EPCH informed that a total of 126 awards were given to 61 winners of the year 2017-18 and to 65 winners of the year 2018-19. A special commendation award was also given. The Awards, instituted in 1989, are organised in four broad categories – Top Export Award, Product Group-wise Awards, Regional Awards and Woman Entrepreneur Award together totalling to 39 Trophies, 3 Platinum Performer Certificates, 72 Merit Certificates, 11 Women Entrepreneur Awards and 1 Special Commendation Award.  The objective of awards is to create a sense of healthy and wholesome competition amongst exporters. Over the years, these have become a coveted recognition amongst the handicrafts exporters as more and more strive to achieve a place in these awards.



Shri Rakesh Kumar, Director General, EPCH thanked the dignitaries for their presence, encouragement & support and added that due to the pandemic, the export awards function is being held after a gap of three years, hence, honoured awardees are for two consecutive years.


EPCH is a nodal agency for promoting exports of handicrafts from the country to various destinations of the world and projecting India’s image abroad as a reliable supplier of high-quality handicrafts goods & services. The Handicrafts exports during the year 2021-22 was Rs. 33253.00 Crores (US $ 4459.76 Million) registering a growth of 29.49% in rupee term & 28.90% in dollar terms over previous year informed by Shri Rakesh Kumar, Director General, EPCH.


The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) has been organizing Export Awards since 1989 to felicitate exporters who have contributed significantly to the development as well as to the exports of handicrafts from the country. The institution of these awards is said to be one of the vital steps taken by EPCH.


The objective of the Handicrafts Export Awards is to create a sense of healthy competition amongst exporters and to encourage wholesome competition through the institution of such prestigious awards. The Awards have become a coveted recognition amongst the handicrafts exporters and more and more exporters strive to receive this award. The same has also led to the quantum jump in the exports of handicrafts from the country.


The export awards are given based on the export performance of the exporters duly certified by the Chartered Accountant and are selected by Export Awards Selection Committee chaired by the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts) or his nominee (Addl. Development Commissioner-Handicrafts) and members of the Committee of Administration of the Council.


Five types of awards are given to the exporters of handicrafts based on their export performance viz. Top Export Award (All Handicrafts); Top Export Award (Product Categories), Women Entrepreneur Award, Merit Certificates for Excellent Export Growth and Regional Export Award.




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Shri Piyush Goyal chairs the 4th meeting of National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC)


The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today chaired the 4th meeting of National Startup Advisory Council (NSAC) in New Delhi. 


Speaking on the occasion, the Minister assured continued government support in developing statrup ecosystem. He appreciated the work done by NSAC members and urged them to focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities where limited VC funding is available. He also emphasized on the need for capacity building and generating awareness about various initiatives of the government to promote startups in such cities.  Members of the council have also been visiting states and interacting with startup entrepreneurs and students in educational institutions to understand and find ways to energize the startup ecosystem. 


The Council deliberated upon important matters relating to startup ecosystem including protecting ownership of startups with original promoters, incorporating in India, listing in India, developing innovation hubs, etc. The members also shared progress on programs presented in earlier NSAC meetings including National Mentorship Program, Investor-Startup Matchmaking Portal, Incubator Capacity Development Program, etc.


The Minister also launched NavIC Grand Challenge which aims at promoting adoption of NavIC as geo-positioning solution, a key proponent for digital Aatmanirbharta. The applications for the grand challenge are open on Startup India’s website (www.startupindia.gov.in) and it aims to identify and handhold solutions of startups which are engaged in developing NavIC enabled drones. 


Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had constituted the National Startup Advisory Council to advise the Government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.


Besides the ex-officio members, the council has non-official members, representing various stakeholders such as founders of successful startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, persons capable of representing interests of investors, incubators and accelerators into startups, representatives of associations of stakeholders of startups and representatives of industry associations.


It is a one of its kind congregation wherein the policy making process is driven as part of collaboration between all the key stakeholders of the Startup ecosystem. 


Secretary, Department of Space also highlighted upon the various measures being undertaken by the Government in both strengthening NavIC’s capabilities and in creating a holistic ecosystem of software and hardware around the same. In the meeting, Prasar Bharti showcased trailer of the second edition of Startup Champions 2.0 which will be aired on bouquet of Doordarshan channels in coming months. 


The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, officials and existing  startups in the country. Some of them include Shri Manoj Kohli, Country Head, Softbank India; Shri Deepak Garg, Founder & CEO, Rivigo Service; Shri Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, UrbanCompany; Shri Kunal Bahl, Co-founder & CEO, Snapdeal; Shri Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder & Executive Vice Chairman, InfoEdge; Ms. Lizzie Chapman, Co-founder & CEO, ZestMoney; Shri Kunal Upadhyay, IIM Ahmedabad; Shri Rajan Anandan, Sequoia Capital; Shri Karthik Reddy, Chairperson, Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association; Shri Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel and others.


During the course of the meeting, the members also shared many interesting insights and views about the startup ecosystem and gave recommendations as to how the ecosystem can be strengthened further through various initiatives and programmes.


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Shri Piyush Goyal asks Indian project exporters to explore markets in the developed world


Shri Piyush Goyal asks Indian project exporters to explore markets in the developed world





Shri Piyush Goyal urges bankers to abandon conservatism and be open to taking risks

India has all the necessary ingredients to become a global player in project exports- Shri Piyush Goyal


Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today asked project exporters to diversify and foray into markets of the developed world and urged them to not restrict themselves to Government Line of Credit Projects and projects in the developing world.



He was delivering the Keynote Address at the ‘Summit on Enhancing Global Opportunities for Indian Project Exporters’ organized by the Exim Bank in New Delhi today.



Developed countries may very well offer advantages of low risk and lower capital requirement with higher credit rating of projects which will enable companies to for higher credit limits, he elaborated.



He complimented India Exim Bank for supporting exporters, for organizing the Summit by including international stakeholders, and for conducting the study on Indian Project Exports.



Outlining the challenges that global economy has been facing since the start of 2022 such as the Omicron wave, global supply chain disruptions, soaring raw material costs, container shortages, global financial market volatility and geopolitical tensions, the Minister observed that it was in this context that the summit is both timely and important.



Observing that several heads of governments and ministers had chosen India as their first destination post Covid, the Minister said that it signalled the tremendous interest that the India story has generated in the world. It is a recognition of efforts put in by each citizen and is indicative of a bright future for the nation, he added.  



The Minister congratulated all the stakeholders for the blockbuster export performance of nearly USD 675 billion in 2021-22 and the record-breaking services export of nearly USD 254 billion, even with a pandemic induced slow down in travel and hospitality. Even the export figures of April 2022 which touched almost USD 38 billion are historic, he noted.



Shri Goyal said that the IT sector’s performance during the pandemic was especially noteworthy and added that India did not let down a single international commitment during the pandemic. Thanks to visionary initiative like Digital India, the nation adapted very well to the exigencies of covid and made record service exports possible in a covid year, he explained.



Setting a target of USD 1 trillion worth of goods and services export each by 2030, the Minister said that the target could be achieved only with the whole-hearted participation of every single stake holder.



The Minister also urged the banking sector to abandon the mindset of conservatism that has set in the sector and be open to taking some risks and added that risk taking was an integral part of business.



India has all the necessary ingredients to become a global player in project exports, the Minister said and added that the world has realized that it is absolutely essential to invest in infrastructure. Project exports would also help our services and goods export to grow, he opined.



He asked the project export sector to look at credit enhancement schemes and find backstop arrangement for private banks to come into project financing.



Highlighting the Government’s Lines of Credit (LOC) programme that has particularly been pivotal in creating opportunities for Indian project exporters, the Minister said that through Concessional Financing Scheme (CFS),Government has been supporting Indian companies bidding for strategic infrastructure projects in the overseas market.



He specified the need for building businesses that are independent of government aid and said that with such businesses, chances of growth and chances of us penetrating the markets of the developed world are better. He urged Exim bank to help exporters by studying what developed world markets wanted and by guiding our infrastructure companies to meet those requirements.



He also asked project export sector to proactively engage with government’s FTA negotiations and give inputs and feedback about the market access problems or discriminations they faced with FTA countries. He assured that these concerns would be factored into India’s FTA negotiations.



Quoting Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, the Minister said ‘The world has great expectations from the India of 21st Century’. Our techies are leading the world from the front, our Farmers are now feeding the world, he said and added that it was time for our engineers and Project Managers be building the world.He assured to fully support Indian Project Exporters and take forward suggestions emanating from the deliberations at the summit to make India “The destination” for project exports.

Shri Goyal exhorts G&J Industry to triple India’s sector exports to $100 billion


Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal today called upon the G&J Industry to triple their exports target from about $35 billion exports at present to go for 100 Billion Dollar target worldwide,


Shri Goyal said the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has always focused on the Gems and Jewellery sector and aims to make India the No. 1 in the world in the G&J sector of not only the Made in India but also Designed in India jewellery.


“I am sure this Centre will also play an important role in helping us meet very, very ambitious target in our India-UAE business engagement and will serve as a global business touch-point to give our produce to international countries across the world from the UAE,” said Shri Goyal, in his address during the Inaugural Ceremony.


Stating that in the Vishnu Purana there is a description of ‘Syamantaka’ gem, which had the power to bring prosperity and plentitude to the possessor, Shri Goyal said jewellery has been part of our culture and tradition and represents as a symbol of style and status in the society.


The G&J sector, at about $35 billion exports, contributed to nearly 10 percent of over $400 Billion exports target India scaled this financial year.


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