New Delhi, August 5, 2026: Empower India, in consultation with leading industry experts, welcomes the Government of India’s landmark FDI reform enabling inventory-based e-commerce exports of ‘Made in India’ goods. Expert analysis confirms this policy unlocks transformative potential for India’s 1.8 crore manufacturing MSMEs.
The new framework removes critical barriers by enabling specialised intermediaries to aggregate cross-border logistics, warehousing, and market access—capabilities traditionally beyond reach of smaller manufacturers. Experts highlight particular opportunity across manufacturing hubs in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Rajasthan, where MSMEs produce globally competitive textiles, engineering goods, jewellery, handicrafts, and fragrances.
While international demand exists, infrastructure constraints have prevented smaller businesses from scaling exports independently. This reform bridges that divide. Expert consensus underscores this policy as essential infrastructure for India’s USD 2 trillion export economy vision under Viksit Bharat.
Speaking on this, Mr. K. Giri, Director General, Empower India, “ This policy sends a powerful signal: India is open for manufacturing at scale. Global brands seeking to ‘Make in India’ now have a direct pathway to world markets through FDI-backed e-commerce marketplaces. By permitting FDI in inventory-based e-commerce exclusively for exports, it recognizes that 1.8 crore MSMEs producing globally competitive goods – from textiles to handicrafts to spices – have been locked out of scale by infrastructure, not by capability. This removes that lock.”
Spencer Cohen, PhD, Principal & Founder, High Peak Strategy LLC, said, “China’s export growth has shown how e-commerce platforms can serve as powerful conduits between small manufacturers and global consumers, providing the logistics, market intelligence, payments, and distribution capabilities that individual firms often cannot build on their own. India is now moving in a similar direction where it has potential to overtake China. By enabling inventory-based e-commerce exports of ‘Made in India’ goods, this reform can help thousands of small and medium-sized manufacturers overcome the fixed costs and complexity of entering foreign markets. It represents an important step toward broadening India’s exporter base and translating the strength of its manufacturing clusters into sustained global export growth.”
Vinod Kumar, President, India SME Forum, said, “There is a buzz of excitement in our 13 Lakh plus members and subscribers. For most MSMEs, exporting is constrained more by access than capability. This reform lowers that barrier by allowing businesses to leverage integrated export infrastructure instead of building it independently. They now find themselves at a point where they have a powerful incentive to become manufacturers instead of just sellers. This can significantly expand export participation, improve incomes for manufacturing MSMEs and strengthen India’s position in global value chains.”
Prof. Viswanath Pingali, Economics, IIM Ahmedabad, highlighted, “The Government deserves credit for this strategic policy shift. With India’s 1.8 crore manufacturing MSMEs producing globally sought products—from textiles to spices to handicrafts—the bottleneck has never been capability; it’s been access. This FDI opening removes that constraint. Combined with use of digital platforms, this can broaden that base by making international markets more accessible, provided implementation is backed by regulatory clarity.”
Highlighting the policy significance of the reform, Shreya Suri, Partner, IndusLaw, also added, “The policy carefully balances export promotion with regulatory continuity by limiting the relaxation to exports while preserving the existing domestic FDI framework for e-commerce. Clear implementation guidelines and compliance standards will provide certainty to manufacturers, platforms and investors, helping the reform achieve its intended outcomes.”
Empower India also highlighted that as India pursues new Free Trade Agreements and deeper integration with global markets, digitally enabled export channels will play an increasingly important role in ensuring that the benefits of trade reach manufacturers across the country. It added that stakeholder feedback on implementation should be viewed as an opportunity to build a clear and enabling framework that inspires confidence across the export ecosystem.
India already has world-class manufacturing clusters and entrepreneurial talent. The next step is enabling more of these businesses to become exporters. This reform has the potential to become that bridge between India’s manufacturers and global consumers.