India has set target of USD 400 billion merchandise export in 2021-22: Piyush Goyal

India has set a target of USD 400 billion merchandise exports for 2021-22, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

"In collaboration with private industry, MSME sector, engineering, agriculture, automobile, steel sector, we have set an export target of USD 400 billion. We all will work together to achieve this target," Goyal said at a press conference here.

He said India's economy is growing and exports are also growing.

"India recorded the highest ever exports in the first quarter of April-June 2021. The highest ever merchandise export in a quarter of USD 95 billion has been achieved from April to June despite the severity of the second wave of COVID-19," he said.

"Despite COVID-19, we have achieved the highest ever FDI inflow of USD 81.72 billion in 2020-21. FDI inflow of USD 6.24 billion in April 2021 is 38 per cent higher than in April 2020," he added.

Goyal said startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) have gone up to 50,000 across 623 districts.

"With these startups nearly 1.8 lakh formal jobs have been created by over 16,000 recognised startups in 2020-21. Several times more have benefited from the startup ecosystem. We have established a fast track mechanism for granting patents to the startup sector," he said.

"There are enough avenues of facilitation without giving subsidies. India has competitive advantages and also offers comparative advantages for the world market," Goyal said.

Referring to e-commerce policy, he said the government has recently announced e-commerce rules under the Consumer Protection Act.

"We believe that our most important stakeholder is the consumer and we wanted to make sure that consumer protection prevails over everything else. E-commerce policy will not be changed for FDI. Will soon clarify on provisions of FDI in e-commerce not being followed. We believe that our most important stakeholder is the consumer and we wanted to make sure that consumer protection prevails over everything else."

( With inputs from ANI )