Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) rise to $12.1 billion in May of this year. The government is working to reach an exports target of $400 billion in 2021-22. “India has got the biggest ever FDI inflow in 2020-21. It climbed by 10 per cent to $81.72 billion. In May 2021, it grew $12.1 billion, or 203 per cent higher than May 2020,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a meeting of different industry organisations promoting exports.

He said that exports are registering growth, and during August 1-14, the outbound shipments improved 71 per cent in 2020-21 and 23 per cent in 2019-20. India’s average import duty fell to 15 per cent in 2020, and applied taxes are under the bound rate of 50.8 per cent, according to the minister. Speaking about employment, he said more than 54,000 startups are producing about 5.5 lakh jobs, and 50,000 new startups will generate over 20 lakh jobs in the next five years. “It is time for our industry to develop our capacity, capability and commitment to developing strong global supply chains,” he said.

During the meeting, the industry firms proposed steps like rising export competitiveness, addressing logistic problems, building the capacity of exporters and developing international markets for Indian products. They also suggested forming pharma and chemicals under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme.