28 states, UTs form export strategy to promote outbound shipments: Official

As many as 28 states and Union Territories (UTs) have formulated their export strategy with a view to promoting the country's outbound shipments, an official said on Monday.

The official also said all 36 states and UTs have constituted State Export Promotion Committee (SEPC) and District Export Promotion Committee (DEPC).

Further, a draft district action plan has been prepared by the regional authorities of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for 590 districts.

Out of this, 249 are formally notified by DEPCs.

These plans include a broad strategy for promotion of exports from districts, the official said.

The Centre is promoting states to engage in export promotion activities as it would help boost domestic manufacturing and job creation.

"State export strategy has been prepared in 28 states/UTs," the official added. These include Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.

In the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023, the DGFT has included the 'Districts As Export Hubs' initiative with an aim to channelise the potential and diverse identity of each district of the country to make them export hubs.

Towards this goal, the products and services with export potential in all the districts of the country have been identified, and an institutional mechanism in the form of SEPC at the state/UT level and DEPCs at the district level has been created in all districts to provide support for export promotion and address the bottlenecks for export growth.

District export action plans are being prepared for identified products and services, to benefit both producers and manufacturers - addressing challenges to export, identifying infrastructural bottlenecks, supply chain gaps, improving market accessibility and providing handholding for increasing exports.

India's exports remained flat at USD 35.14 billion in June due to global economic uncertainties, while the trade deficit narrowed to a four-month low of USD 18.78 billion during the month.

During April-June 2025-26, exports increased 1.92 per cent to USD 112.17 billion, while imports rose 4.24 per cent to USD 179.44 billion.