| |APRIL 202219the highest ever monthly figure ever in the history of India.On the 23rd of March, as the country achieved its highest ever goods export target of $400 billion, the government is confident of reaching $410 billion of exports by March 31st, since India has been shipping-out goods which are worth more than $1 billion a day.The Indian Prime Minister was quick to hail the exporters and he praised the weavers, manufacturers, farmers, MSMEs, and others for their success. "India set an ambitious target of $400 billion of goods exports and achieved this target for the first time. I congratulate our farmers, weavers, MSMEs, manufacturers, exporters for this success. This is a key milestone in our Aatmanirbhar Bharat journey", Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.A Detailed StrategyPiyush Goyal stated that a detailed strategy was in place in order to achieve the target. This included specific country-wise, product-wise, as well as export promotion council-wise targets, monitoring, & course correction. He also mentioned that higher engineering exports, apparel, and garment export showed that the misconception of the country being a major exporter of primary commodities is now changing and India is now exporting a huge volume of value-added and high-end products. The top five commodities exported from India included petroleum products, chemicals, gems & jewellery, engineering goods and ready-made garments of all textiles.What remained the biggest export item was the exports of engineering goods. This rose from 32 percent in the first 11 months during this fiscal period when compared to that of the last financial year. And in this category, the top exports included electric machinery, iron & steel, motor vehicles, and aluminium & aluminium products.While the increase in trend in exports is praiseworthy, the momentum is likely to sustain with proactive measures that include the signing of Free-Trade Agreements as well as expansion of the flagship export promotion scheme RoDTEP to industries such as pharma and iron & steel.In a reply during the question hour in Lok Sabha in February, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said, "For 10th month in a row, April 2021 to January 2022, India has posted over $30 billion of exports. It is a record; we have already crossed $334 billion of exports, which is more than the highest ever that India has done in a full 12 months period. We are well on track to achieve $400 billion of exports". Furthermore, in the current fiscal year, a range of initiatives that are handpicked specifically for maximizing export earnings and establishing dominance in key markets is being pushed by the Commerce Department. A MAJOR FACTOR THAT HAD A SIGNIFICANT ROLE TO PLAY IN THE RECOVERY OF THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMY IS THE IMPROVEMENT IN MERCHANDISE EXPORTS
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