120 Districts, 1 Mission: The Centre’s New Plan to Widen India’s Export Base
The Centre has launched a Districts as Export Hubs initiative covering 120 priority districts nationwide, with five Karnataka districts chosen for its first phase.
India’s commerce ministry is betting that the country’s next wave of export growth will come from beyond its established metros. At the State-Level Export Promotion Committee (SLEPC) meeting in Bengaluru on Friday, Darpan Jain, additional secretary in the Union commerce and industry ministry, outlined the Centre’s Export Promotion Mission (EPM), which aims to boost exports by leveraging the sectoral strengths of individual states.
As part of the mission, Jain said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has launched a time-bound campaign under the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative, covering 120 priority districts across the country.
In Karnataka, five districts have been selected for the first phase: Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, Hassan, Kolar and Dakshina Kannada. Jain said these districts, beyond Bengaluru, carry significant export potential in textiles, apparel, silk, leather goods, agriculture and processed food.
To support that potential, Jain said the Centre would offer exporters financial assistance, freight subsidies for shipments originating outside Bengaluru, airport warehousing support and buyer-seller meets.
The mission’s Karnataka rollout comes against the backdrop of a state that already leads the country in software exports. Chief secretary Shalini Rajneesh told the meeting that Karnataka contributes 41% of India’s software exports, retaining its position as the country’s largest software exporting state.
Karnataka also accounts for 24% of India’s overall exports, Rajneesh said, but ranks fourth in merchandise exports with a 7.78% share, behind Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Wikimedia Commons/by Rameshng
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