New Delhi: The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the Export Promotion Mission (EPM), a major initiative aimed at strengthening India’s export ecosystem with a total outlay of Rs 25,060 crore for FY 2025–26 to FY 2030–31. Announced in the Union Budget 2025–26, the mission seeks to enhance India’s export competitiveness, especially for MSMEs, first-time exporters, and labour-intensive sectors.
EPM will serve as a comprehensive, flexible, and digitally driven framework that brings together multiple fragmented schemes into a single adaptive mechanism capable of responding swiftly to global trade challenges and evolving exporter needs. The initiative will be implemented collaboratively by the Department of Commerce, the Ministry of MSME, the Ministry of Finance, and several other stakeholders, including financial institutions, export promotion councils, commodity boards, industry associations, and state governments.
The mission will operate through two components Niryat Protsahan and Niryat Disha. Niryat Protsahan will focus on improving access to affordable trade finance for MSMEs through measures like interest subvention, export factoring, collateral guarantees, credit cards for e-commerce exporters, and credit enhancement support to diversify into new markets. Niryat Disha will focus on non-financial enablers that improve market readiness, offering support for export quality and compliance, international branding, packaging, participation in trade fairs, export warehousing, logistics, inland transport reimbursements, and trade intelligence and capacity-building initiatives.
EPM will consolidate existing export support schemes such as the Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES) and Market Access Initiative (MAI), aligning them with contemporary trade requirements. It is designed to address key challenges faced by Indian exporters, including limited and costly trade finance access, high compliance expenses for international standards, insufficient export branding, and logistical barriers for exporters in interior and low-export-intensity regions.
Under the mission, priority support will be extended to sectors that have been affected by recent global tariff escalations, including textiles, leather, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, and marine products. These interventions aim to sustain export orders, protect jobs, and open new opportunities in emerging markets. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) will serve as the implementing agency, managing all processes from application to disbursal through a dedicated digital platform integrated with existing trade systems.
The mission is expected to improve access to affordable trade finance for MSMEs, enhance export readiness through compliance and certification assistance, boost market access and visibility for Indian products, expand exports from non-traditional districts and sectors, and generate employment across manufacturing, logistics, and allied services.
EPM represents a strategic effort to make India’s export ecosystem more inclusive, technology-enabled, and globally competitive, aligning with the long-term vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.
BI Bureau
