Goyal highlights India’s growing appeal as a global trading partner | Today’s news
NEW DELHI: India is emerging as a preferred trading partner, with countries across regions seeking preferential and free trade agreements with it, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday, expressing confidence that the country’s exports will touch $1 trillion this financial year.
India recorded record exports of $863 billion last year and has set a target of 16% growth this year, Goyal said at the Young Leaders Discourse Forum at Kirori Mal College in New Delhi.
Exports rose 14% to $480 billion in the first six months of the year, he said, expressing confidence that the annual target would be met.
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India would need to achieve exports worth another $520 billion in the remaining six months to meet the annual target, Goyal said, adding that October was also a good month. The government has not yet released official trade data for October.
He said India could have set an export target of $900 billion, a 5% growth over the previous year’s exports, but chose a more ambitious target. The $900 billion target alone would represent growth at more than double the International Monetary Fund’s projected world trade growth rate of 1.9% in its April-May projections, he said.
Goyal also noted that the IMF had recently revised its global trade growth projection to around 3.5%, adding that one of the factors behind the revision could have been India’s export performance.
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Highlighting India’s economic progress, Goyal said the country has come a long way from being a “fragile five” economy to becoming one of the world’s leading economies and the fastest growing major economy.
He attributed the country’s economic progress to its talent, young workforce, democratic system, decisive leadership and domestic demand for quality goods and services. He noted that India’s average age is under 30 and that its population of $140 million creates significant demand.
Urging the youth to contribute to India’s ambition to become a developed nation by 2047, Goyal said today’s youth will be the architects of the country’s journey to the milestone.
Biopharma startups
Separately, Goyal chaired a high-level roundtable on strengthening India’s biopharma ecosystem and accelerating the growth of the bioeconomy at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi.
Organized by the Department of Industrial Promotion and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in collaboration with NITI Aayog and NITI Frontier Tech Hub, the roundtable brought together policy makers, industry leaders and biopharma startups to discuss measures to accelerate the growth of India’s bioeconomy.
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Goyal called for faster regulatory approvals, better access to finance, shared infrastructure and stronger collaboration between industry, academia and government. He also called for time-bound action on the recommendations arising from the discussions.
Discussions focused on simplified regulations, faster approvals, proposed regulatory sandbox, single window clearance, global regulatory alignment and streamlined patent application processes.
Participants also discussed Biopharma SHAKTI, announced in the Union Budget 2026-27, and the need to develop shared laboratories, testing facilities and infrastructure for clinical trials to reduce costs and help start-ups scale up their innovations.
The roundtable also explored ways to boost domestic life sciences production, expedite customs clearance of laboratory equipment and reagents, and simplify access to government programs and regulatory support. Participants called for greater coordination between ministries to ensure coherent policy interventions and faster solutions to sector-specific challenges.
