NITI Aayog releases the third edition of the ‘Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2022’ for States/UTs

Last Updated19/07/2023

NITI Aayog recently released the third edition of the report titled ‘Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2022’ for States/UTs of India.
The EPI 2022 report seeks to empower State governments with region-specific insights to assist decision-making, identify strengths, address weaknesses, and foster comprehensive growth across States and UTs of India.
The EPI 2022 recognizes that by unlocking regional competitiveness and leveraging our innate diversity, India can enhance its export potential.
The report presents a comprehensive analysis of India’s export performance in FY22, along with its sector-specific and district-level merchandise export trends.

It aims to identify challenges and opportunities, enhance the effectiveness of government policies and encourage a facilitative regulatory framework for export.
The index entails four pillars, eleven sub pillars and sixty indicators and covers across 28 states and 8 UTs.
Four Pillars
- Policy: A comprehensive trade policy providing a strategic direction for exports and imports.
- Business Ecosystem: An efficient business ecosystem helping states attract investments and create an enabling infrastructure for individuals to initiate start-ups.
- Export Ecosystem: Assess the business environment, which is specific to exports.
- Export Performance: This is the only output-based parameter and examines the reach of export footprints of States and Union Territories.
The EPI is a data-driven effort to identify the core areas crucial for export promotion at the sub-national level (states and union territories).
It explores and highlights India’s export potential by examining the different contributions made by each state and union territories
The report aims to facilitate competitive federalism in the country which creates a spirit of healthy competition among the states and encourages peer-learning among the states.

The EPI 2022 Report observed that most ‘Coastal States’ have performed well, with the states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat being the top-performers in all categories of states.
The efforts of state governments in improving the policy ecosystem have led many states to create export promotion policies and district-level export action plans.
However, there is a scope for improvement in business and export ecosystem in many states which is necessary to improve their export performance.