India is on course to meet its export target of $400 billion by March 2022 as it exported $100 billion in the third quarter (Oct-Dec) of current fiscal 2021-22. Global demand for Indian goods has been improving since December, with exports hitting a monthly high of $37.29 billion. Anant Srivastava, Director, Home Textile Exporters Welfare Association (HEWA), says this is the highest ever export in a month so far and there is no doubt that exports will touch $ 400 billion in the next quarter.

As per Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister, India’s exports of cotton yarn, fabrics, made-up, and handloom products are gaining more traction and have successfully registered a growth rate of 45.73 percent in the one year, December 2020 to December 2021. Vikas Singh Chauhan, Director, HEWA believes India’s export success story will continue this year as well. But to achieve the target of $1 trillion in 2022-23, efforts will have to be intensified.

Indian economy is showing positive signs as it has already crossed the $300 billion exports mark in three quarters. The increase in exports is also due to some favorable steps taken by the government, such as expansion of RoSCTL, facility of RoDTEP, payment of pending dues of Rs 56,000 crore in September for export promotion schemes, and relaxation to factories during the second wave of lockdown.

Industry leaders believe, high freight charges, raw material cost, lack of major FTAs, fully functional alternative routes like the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) are some of the challenges to achieving $1 trillion exports and $5 trillion GDP in the next few years. India also needs to put in place a mechanism to control the rising cost of raw material in cotton to achieve the textile export target of $100 billion in the next few years, they say.