The government has decided to aim for $ 1 trillion of exports from India this year, an increase of 15.8% on year from $ 863 billion recorded in 2025-26, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said Wednesday.
“That is not impossible, we are opening the doors (through FTAs) . States are supporting us to bring down logistics costs and improve infrastructure. Along with the states, the centre is working for ease of doing business in every sphere of activity,” he said at the Awards Ceremony of Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) 2025.
Digital Simplification
The government has already reduced 42,000 compliances, the labor codes have been notified and most states are now drafting the rules around the new labor codes. “I have told the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to start working on easing all processes, procedures, policies, forms that businesses have to fill up. Try to integrate databases and reduce the burden along with it,” Goyal said.
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“That will be our next step to further make everything as simple as possible. And in every case, take it online.”
The minister earlier in the day co-chaired India-Chile Business Roundtable with the visiting Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Perez Mackenna. He also held a meeting with Maldives Foreign Minister Iruthisham Adam.
Expanding the Global Grid
The minister said FTAs with both Maldives and Chile would be finalised this year.
In the last three and a half years India has signed nine FTAs that covers 38 countries. Four of these FTAs are already operational, another 5 will be operational in the next 12 months.
Together with the 12 countries covered by the previous government – FTAs with Japan, Korea and the ASEAN – India’s FTAs cover more than two-third of global trade and two-third of global economies.
Discussions are going on with Canada, Israel, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “We are in active conversation with Eurasia, that’s Europe and the Central Asia nations. We also are planning to start talking to Mexico,” the minister added.
The LEADS report has put Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram and Delhi in the category of ‘exemplars’ in the logistics performance ranking for 2025. ‘Exemplars’ represent the top-performing states and Union Territories (UTs) that demonstrate sustained excellence across policy, infrastructure, service delivery and regulatory dimensions in the logistics sector.
Eleven states and UTs – Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Haryana, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Tripura, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry – have been categorised as “high performers” demonstrating strong and consistent outcomes across the majority of performance indicators.
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Similarly, 18 states and UTs have been categorised as ‘accelerators’. This category includes Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Goa, Karnataka, Punjab, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Chandigarh, Ladakh, and Lakshadweep. Accelerators comprise states and Union Territories that have demonstrated notable improvement momentum and a clear reform orientation in recent years.
The ‘growth seekers’ category includes West Bengal, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. These states are at a foundational stage of logistics system development and institutional strengthening.
TOPICSPiyush GoyalThis article was first uploaded on May fourteen, twenty twenty-six, at forty-four minutes past twelve in the am.