India has truly gone from ‘local to global’ in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said today.

Addressing a press conference, Goyal said every Indian should be proud of the pace at which India is achieving ‘atmanirbharta’ while ensuring that every Indian benefits from this progress. He added that India has been able to achieve this spectacular target under the leadership of the Prime Minister.

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Expressing confidence that India’s economy is poised to break several records, Goyal said that PM Modi had set lofty goals for India and that our nation is extremely capable of achieving such immense goals by sheer hard work.

India is recovering fast after Covid hit its exports. Goyal said, “notwithstanding the challenges posed by successive waves of Covid, India’s merchandise trade performance has shown impressive growth and exports remained above USD 30 billion for twelve consecutive months during April 2021 to March 2022. “

The Prime Minister called for ‘local to global’ and today India’s products are in great demand all over the world. This is a testament to the strength of leadership. The PM now focuses extensively on the ‘whole of nation approach, he said.

Merchandise exports from India have reached USD 417.8 billion in the current financial year.

Moreover, India has achieved the highest monthly value of merchandise export in March 2022 amounting to USD 40.38 billion, an increase of 14.53% over USD 35.26 billion in March 2021 and an increase of 87.89% over USD 21.49 billion in March 2020.

The exports have witnessed significant growth in non-petroleum goods also in April 2021-March 2022 which was USD 352.76 billion, an increase of 32.62% over USD 266.00 billion in April 2020-March 2021 and an increase of 29.66% over USD 272.07 billion in April 2019-March 2020.

India’s diversified export portfolio in 2021-22 shows India’s manufacturing abilities as well as growth in hi-tech goods, electronics and agricultural products.

Goyal said the ‘never say die’ spirit of our exporters, the relentless effort by EPCs and Industry Association, and the coordination among different GOI Departments and state governments reflecting the ‘whole of government approach’ have resulted in this stupendous achievement.

Every sector of the economy, every farmer, every entrepreneur, every MSME and state governments worked together to achieve this lucrative goal, he said. One of the impressive growths has been seen in the Agriculture sector and especially during pandemics; India emerged as a major global supplier of food / essential agriculture products. Agriculture exports buoyancy is driven by commodities such as rice (both basmati and non-basmati), marine products, wheat, spices and sugar, among others, recording the highest ever agricultural products export in 2021-22.

Higher agricultural exports signify the ability of Indian farmers to meet the requirement of a 1.35 billion population and yet produce a surplus to export to the rest of the world.

“When we set a target of $50 billion exports of Agriculture produces, few imagined this would be possible. But today I want to congratulate our farmers who have grown more produce despite Covid-19. The export growth has helped farmers and labour-intensive sectors and MSMEs. The government places special emphasis on these sectors,” the Commerce Minister said.