The Districts as Export Hubs (DEH) initiative has established State Export Promotion Committees (SEPC) and District Export Promotion Committees (DEPC) across all 36 States and Union Territories to strengthen district level export competitiveness. Draft District Export Action Plans (DEAPs) for 590 districts have been prepared, of which 249 have been formally notified by the district committees. The institutional mechanisms are intended to co-ordinate export promotion activities and to address bottlenecks affecting export growth at state and district level.

Products with export potential have been identified across districts, including geographical indication products, agricultural clusters and toy clusters. In Sabarkantha in Gujarat the focus includes ceramics, tiles and potato while Aravalli is oriented to minerals, agro processing, glass and tiles. Jalgaon has been mapped for the Jalgaon banana and specific brinjal varieties, and Madhya Pradesh has identified products across all 52 districts such as onions and pharmaceutical products in Indore and oranges in Agar Malwa.

Chhattisgarh districts have been profiled for rice, maize and mango in Raipur and Bastar iron craft in Bastar, while Jharkhand has priorities such as bamboo craft, forest produce and horticultural vegetables. The initiative supports local exporters and manufacturers to scale operations and to find potential buyers outside India in order to promote exports, manufacturing and the services industry at district level. Outreach events and capacity building are being organised to raise awareness, resolve exporter concerns and create new exporters.

The project aims to empower micro, small and medium enterprises, farmers and small scale industries to access overseas markets and to benefit from export opportunities while supporting self sufficiency and self reliance. Data on exports and district action plans has been made publicly available on the niryat portal and on the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) online platform, and a consolidated list of identified products and services is accessible via the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) resource. The Minister of State for Commerce and Industry informed the Lok Sabha about the progress of the DEH initiative.