Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday launched seven additional interventions under the Export Promotion Mission, a flagship initiative of the Centre aimed at empowering micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for competing in global markets. According to reports from Zee News, these interventions are designed to address key challenges faced by Indian exporters, promote broad-based and inclusive export growth, and strengthen India's position as a globally competitive export powerhouse. The announcement was made on the occasion of World Day of Social Justice with emphasis on inclusive growth and empowerment of marginalised sections.
The minister stated that India today engages with developed economies with confidence, safeguarding sensitive sectors while securing gains in areas of competitive strength. As reported by Zee News, Goyal emphasised that the benefits of global trade must reach every MSME, startup, and entrepreneur, with the Export Promotion Mission aimed at promoting new products, services and exporters, while enabling Indian businesses to access new markets. The Mission was announced in the Union Budget 2025–26 as a major structural reform that merges multiple fragmented export support schemes into a single outcome-based and digitally enabled framework.
India has recorded double-digit growth in merchandise exports in the first half of February, reflecting strong market confidence and proactive industry participation. According to the minister's statement reported by Zee News, the Mission seeks to simplify processes for MSMEs, strengthen access to credit, enhance quality standards, support compliance with international regulations and expand logistics and warehousing infrastructure globally. The Mission has a total financial outlay of ₹25,060 crore for the period from FY 2025–26 to FY 2030–31, aiming to strengthen India's export ecosystem by improving access to affordable trade finance and enhancing global market readiness and competitiveness.
The newly launched interventions under Niryat Protsahan include Support for Alternative Trade Instruments (Export Factoring) offering 2.75% interest subvention on factoring costs with assistance capped at ₹50 lakh per MSME annually through a digital claim mechanism. Additionally, Credit Assistance for E-Commerce Exporters provides support up to ₹50 lakh with 90% guarantee coverage and Overseas Inventory Credit Facility extending support up to ₹5 crore with 75% guarantee coverage. The Mission focuses on creating a unified and performance-driven mechanism to promote sustained and inclusive export growth, with the Export Promotion Mission adopting a holistic ecosystem approach by combining financial enablers under 'Niryat Protsahan' and trade ecosystem support under 'Niryat Disha'.
Initiatives such as overseas warehousing, including Bharat Mart in Dubai, are intended to provide Indian exporters with strategic access to markets across the GCC, Africa, Central Asia, and Europe. The Mission is anchored in an institutional framework involving the Department of Commerce, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Finance, Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards, financial institutions, industry associations and state governments. With these latest launches, 10 out of the 11 proposed interventions under EPM are now operational, addressing structural constraints including high cost of capital, limited access to diversified trade finance instruments, compliance burdens in international markets, logistics disadvantages, and barriers to market entry.
Goyal underlined that India's expanding network of free trade agreements (FTAs) has significantly enhanced market access for Indian exporters. According to Zee News, he noted that nearly 70 per cent of global GDP and two-thirds of global trade are now accessible to India through nine concluded FTAs, including the first tranche of the Bilateral Trade Agreement with the United States. These agreements provide preferential access across sectors in 38 developed and emerging economies, helping safeguard employment and export orders in sectors affected by global tariff escalations such as textiles, leather, engineering goods and marine products.