By Priti Naik
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, India’s merchandise exports have rose to a record of $418 billion in 2021-22 fiscal exceeding the target by 5%. Union Minister Piyush Goyal informed that the exports have reached to $40 billion in the month of March.
Asserting that it has never happened before, Commerce Minister Goyal said, “For the first time in our country’s history, $418 billion export done, 5% more than the target, despite COVID wave. The consistency is such that we exceeded $40 billion in March.” Goyal further informed that India has been able to achieve such wonderful results without any subsidies and grants.
Santosh Sarangi, India’s Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), told that the country’s export basket is no longer limited to intermediate or raw commodities, but is rapidly shifting toward manufactured goods. India’s exports to developed countries, such as the United States, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany, have increased significantly, according to Sarangi. On the contrary, until recently, significant quantities of goods were exported to neighbouring countries, mostly to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Engineering Export Promotion Council of India chairman Mahesh Desai said that despite obstacles arising from global geopolitical concerns, engineering goods exports reached $111 billion in FY22 and are projected to maintain the growth trend in the current fiscal. “India’s GDP projection has been cut by some of the world’s biggest rating agencies in recent weeks. Clearly, there will be an impact, but it should not be catastrophic,” Desai added.
Furthermore, Goyal stated that India’s wheat exports are expected to exceed 100 lakh tonnes (10 million tonnes) in 2022-23, owing to rising global demand for the commodity. In 2021-22, exports exceeded 70 lakh tonnes (worth over Rs 15,000 crore), compared to 21.55 lakh tonnes (worth over Rs 4,000 crore) in 2020-21. In 2019-20, it was barely two lakh tonnes (Rs 500 crore).
