India Launches Export Push: New ₹14,000 Crore Mission to Boost MSMEs & Global Reach

"So, one of the important highlight of this year was this entire process of getting the export promotion mission conceived," the official said, adding that the exercise was initiated by a predecessor and involved "a series of meetings before the FM, CIM and the then secretary and the current secretary and ultimately on November 12."

"Today we are notifying the first guideline which is the guideline for the market access initiative," the official said, noting that the mission comprises "broad two subschemes within the export promotion mission."

The official added that policymakers identified "two disabilities or two areas where we need to focus on as far as the promoting the export is concerned," the first being access to trade finance. "The overall objective is to make the trade barracks accessible for the exporters," said the official, adding that accessibility includes "the cost of the finance as well as the speed at which they get it."

Under the trade finance component, the Riyadh-Khorsan scheme includes "trade interest subvention," "credit enhancement, particularly for the MSME," collateral guarantees and "new instrument of trade finance that is export factory." It also covers financing for suppliers and a customised credit card for e-commerce exporters.

In parallel, the mission addresses market diversification. "You cannot keep all your export money in one basket or two baskets, you have to be very diversified," the senior government official said. Exporters entering new markets or products will receive "a tailor made intervention," the official added.

The second major component, Niryat-Disha, focuses on export infrastructure and compliance. "Our concept of Niryat-Disha is a very essential export infrastructure that has to be there," the senior government official said, including buyer-seller meets, trade delegations and reverse buyer-seller meets.

A sub-component called Trace will "partially reimburse the cost of compliances," the official said. "The product passport... depends and changes shape as per the markets," said the official, citing requirements such as REACH or eco-tax compliance in specific destinations. "This Trace is basically to be able to fully comply with that product passport."

The mission also includes branding, sectoral promotion, export logistics, overseas warehouses and fulfilment centres, inland transport for remote export clusters, and "trade intelligence and surveillance where constantly we have to also study the new market."

"All in all it's a complete suite of sort of intervention," the senior government official said, adding that the government plans to issue guidelines for all 11 components by Jan. 31.

For market access support, the objective is to "enhance global reach and visibility and competitiveness of Indian firms," the official said. Eligible agencies include government departments, export promotion councils, commodity boards and trade bodies. The total budgetary outlay is about 14,000 crore rupees, with flexibility to reallocate funds based on uptake.

Cost-sharing is set at 60% government and 40% private, rising to 80% government support for priority sectors with higher MSME participation. Firms can receive support for up to three buyer-seller meets per year, while MSMEs are eligible for four. Over FY25-31, entities can participate in up to nine such events, or 15 for MSMEs.

"Everything this time around is on a digital dashboard," the official said, adding that outcomes such as "trainees generated" will be tracked to ensure measurable impact and allow course correction.

- ANI