Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has expressed confidence that India will achieve its ambitious $1 trillion exports target in 2026-27, despite geopolitical uncertainties and disruptions to global trade arising from the West Asia crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“We will do, we can do,” Goyal said on Thursday, reaffirming the government’s ambition to drive export growth by around 15% during the current financial year.
Speaking at the curtain raiser of the Invest Telangana Global Summit, the minister highlighted that India’s combined exports of goods and services had reached an all-time high of $863 billion in 2025-26. Building on this performance, the government is aiming to increase total exports to $1 trillion in FY27.
Acknowledging the challenging global economic environment, Goyal said India continued to demonstrate resilience amid volatility, uncertainty and disruptions affecting international trade.
Nine FTAs Open Access to Markets Worth $60 Trillion
Highlighting the opportunities created by India’s nine Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) finalised over the past five years, Goyal said the agreements provide Indian exporters preferential access to markets across economies with a combined GDP of approximately $60 trillion.
He urged Telangana to make strategic use of these trade agreements by identifying 50 key products and services from the state that could benefit from preferential market access.
The minister also called for promoting geographical indication (GI)-tagged products in international markets and encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to move up the value chain to capture greater export value.
He identified emerging sectors, including space, defence, electronics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and machine learning, as promising areas for Telangana to strengthen its industrial base and global export competitiveness.
Goyal further emphasised the need to improve the ease of doing business through targeted initiatives to attract investments and accelerate domestic industrial growth.
Merchandise Exports Grow 18.5% in April-September
India’s merchandise exports registered strong growth during the first half of FY27, rising 18.51% year-on-year to $259.89 billion during April-September 2026-27.
Merchandise imports during the same period increased 16.31% to $437.53 billion, widening the merchandise trade deficit to $177.64 billion, compared with $156.88 billion in the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
Services exports were estimated at $216.31 billion during April-September 2026-27, up from $199.02 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Consequently, India’s combined exports of merchandise and services were estimated at $476.2 billion in the first six months of the current financial year.
With exports already accounting for nearly half of the annual $1 trillion target, the government remains optimistic that sustained growth in merchandise and services exports will help India achieve this milestone, further strengthening its position in global trade.