Gujarat Beats Karnataka on Exports Overall, But Software Tells a Different Story

India’s export map looks different depending on what you’re counting. In merchandise exports, Karnataka ranks only fourth among Indian states, holding a 7.78% share and trailing Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

But flip to software, and the picture reverses entirely. Karnataka contributes 41% of India’s software exports, chief secretary Shalini Rajneesh told the State-Level Export Promotion Committee (SLEPC) meeting in Bengaluru on Friday, retaining its position as the country’s largest software exporting state by a wide margin.

Taken together, the state accounts for 24% of India’s overall exports once goods and software are combined, underlining how central Bengaluru’s technology sector is to the state’s trade numbers even as its factory-floor exports lag other states.

The meeting also served as a platform for the Centre to lay out its own plans. Darpan Jain, additional secretary in the Union commerce and industry ministry, outlined the Export Promotion Mission (EPM), which aims to lift exports nationally by leveraging the specific sectoral strengths each state already has.

As part of that push, Jain said the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has launched a time-bound campaign under the Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative, spanning 120 priority districts nationwide, with Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, Hassan, Kolar and Dakshina Kannada chosen for Karnataka’s first phase.

Jain added that districts outside Bengaluru carry real export potential in textiles, apparel, silk, leather goods, agriculture and processed food, and that the Centre would back exporters there with financial assistance, freight subsidies for shipments originating outside Bengaluru, airport warehousing support and buyer-seller meets.

Wikimedia Commons/by Rameshng