Mumbai, Mar 7 : on commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday exuded confidence in surpassing India’s merchandise exports target of USD 400 billion to touch USD 410 billion in the current financial year, despite the the rising Russia-Ukraine conflict. Speaking at an event organised by industry body Assocham, Goyal said that today the narrative has moved from ‘why India’ to ‘why not India’ and that the world is looking at India as a ‘trusted partner’. “We are at USD 374 billion (merchandise exports) until February 2022, for the 11 months. So, I do believe that irrespective of the problems we have in the northern parts of Asia and Europe, we are well on track not only to achieve USD 400 billion of exports, but I am hoping it to be closer to USD 410 billion,” he said. India had set a target of USD 400 billion of merchandise exports for the current fiscal year. The comments come at a time when economists are raising concerns over the impact of the rising number of sanctions on Russia for its invasion in Ukraine, on input costs as well as India’s trade. On the export of services, Goyal said he won’t be surprised if the numbers crossed USD 250 billion. “I have reset the target of exports of services twice during the year. Despite the travel, tourism and hospitality, all of them taking a knock, we had a target of USD 200 then made it USD 225 billion and then USD 240 billion. But looking at the numbers that are coming in, I won’t be surprised if we cross USD 250 billion,” he said. Goyal further said that this will be a year of huge records and possibly we will be, for the first time, edging very close to 25 per cent of nations GDP coming up from exports of both goods and services. He added that this positivity among the stakeholders and the industry ecosystem both reflects the true strength of India. “We are so appropriately placed that the sentiment is right. The narrative has moved from ‘why India’ to ‘why not India’ and today the world is looking at India as a trusted partner,” Goyal said. He further said that in resilient supply chains, they (other countries) would like to see India there when it comes to service commitments and that they can trust India to deliver as they saw through the last 2 years of Covid. “During the last two years of Covid, we met every single commitment that India made to any part of the world. Our services sector quickly re-oriented itself. …we did not let down any service commitments which is why we are looked up on as trusted partner,” Goyal added. PSK SHK2014