Cabinet approves Rs 25,060 crore Export Promotion Mission to boost India’s global trade competitiveness
The Union Cabinet, chaired by PM Narendra Modi, has approved the launch of the Export Promotion Mission (EPM) — a flagship initiative aimed at transforming India’s export ecosystem and strengthening competitiveness, particularly for MSMEs, first-time exporters, and labour-intensive sectors.
The Export Promotion Mission was announced in the Union Budget 2025–26. Running from FY 2025–26 to FY 2030–31, the mission will offer an integrated, flexible, and digitally enabled framework to support and accelerate export growth.
With a total outlay of Rs 25,060 crore for the period FY 2025–26 to FY 2030–31, the EPM will have a comprehensive, flexible, and digitally driven framework that replaces multiple fragmented schemes with a single, outcome-oriented mechanism. It is designed to address the structural bottlenecks in India’s export landscape — from costly trade finance to compliance challenges and inadequate branding support.
Export growth
The Mission will operate under a collaborative structure, involving the Department of Commerce, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Finance, and other key stakeholders such as financial institutions, Export Promotion Councils, Commodity Boards, industry associations, and state governments.
Two integrated sub-schemes will drive the Mission’s operations:
Niryat Protsahan: Focused on easing access to affordable trade finance for MSMEs through instruments like interest subvention, export factoring, collateral guarantees, e-commerce export credit cards, and credit enhancement for diversification into new markets.
Niryat Disha: Geared toward non-financial enablers, including export quality certification, international branding, packaging support, participation in trade fairs, export warehousing, inland transport reimbursement, trade analytics, and capacity-building programmes.
These interventions consolidate key existing initiatives such as the Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) and the Market Access Initiative (MAI) into a single, adaptive platform aligned with modern trade requirements.
Structural challenges
The EPM is designed to overcome four major hurdles that have historically constrained Indian exports:
Limited and expensive access to trade finance;
High costs of compliance with global standards;
Weak branding and fragmented international market outreach;
Logistical disadvantages for exporters in non-coastal and low-export-intensity districts.
To mitigate these, the Mission will extend priority support to sectors impacted by recent global tariff hikes — including textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, and marine products. These sectors are critical for sustaining export orders, protecting jobs, and diversifying India’s presence in new markets.
Expected impact
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will serve as the implementing agency, overseeing all processes from application to fund disbursal through a dedicated digital platform integrated with India’s existing trade systems.
The Export Promotion Mission (EPM) is expected to expand MSMEs’ access to affordable trade finance, enhance export readiness and compliance standards, and strengthen India’s presence in global supply chains. It also aims to boost exports from non-traditional districts and generate large-scale employment across manufacturing, logistics, and allied sectors.
By consolidating multiple export support schemes into a single, performance-driven framework, the Mission marks a major policy shift toward an integrated and outcome-based approach, positioning India for sustained, broad-based export-led growth and improved competitiveness in international markets over the coming decade.
