NITI Aayog releases report on Export Preparedness Index; Gujarat tops list

Gujarat has topped the Niti Aayog’s Export Preparedness Index 2020 followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in the second and third place respectively, according to the government think tank’s report.

According to the report released on Wednesday, six coastal states -- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala -- feature in the top ten rankings, indicating the presence of strong enabling and facilitating factors to promote exports.

Among the landlocked states, Rajasthan has performed the best, followed by Telangana and Haryana.

Among the Himalayan states, Uttarakhand topped the chart, followed by Tripura and Himachal Pradesh. Across Union Territories, Delhi has performed the best, followed by Goa and Chandigarh. The report stated that Chattisgarh and Jharkhand are two landlocked states that had initiated several measures to promote exports.

The report noted that other states facing similar socio-economic challenges can look at the measures taken by Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and try to implement them to grow their exports

Speaking at the launch of the report, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said exports are an integral part of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and the country will have to keep striving to increase the share of exports in GDP and world trade.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said rapid growth of exports is a crucial component for long-term economic growth, adding that a favourable ecosystem enables a country to contribute significantly to global value chains and reap the benefits of integrated production networks, globally.

Niti Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness released the first Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020. The EPI intends to identify challenges and opportunities and encourage a facilitative regulatory framework.

The index ranked states on four key parameters – policy; business ecosystem; export ecosystem; export performance.The index also took into consideration 11 sub-pillars -- export promotion policy; institutional framework; business environment; infrastructure; transport connectivity; access to finance; export infrastructure; trade support; R&D infrastructure; export diversification; and growth orientation.

On policy parameters, Maharashtra topped the index followed by Gujarat and Jharkhand, while on business ecosystem parameter, Gujarat was ranked number one followed by Delhi and Tamil Nadu.In the export ecosystem parameter, Maharashtra topped the Index followed by Odisha and Rajasthan and on the export performance parameter, Mizoram led the index, followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra.The report pointed out that at present, 70 per cent of India’s export has been dominated by five states – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.

(With inputs from PTI)