New Delhi: Indian businesses should focus on leveraging free trade agreements (FTAs) and initiatives such as the export promotion mission to expand their global footprint, strengthen international partnerships and boost shipments, CII's Sanjay Budhia said on Friday.

He said India's cumulative exports reached an estimated USD 476.20 billion during April-September 2026, registering a robust growth of 13.84 per cent year-on-year.

Budhia, Chairman, CII National Committee on Exports and Managing Director, Patton International Ltd, said that the resilience and growing competitiveness of the Indian industry, particularly in electronics, engineering goods, chemicals and textiles are helping push exports.

Read more: MSMEs need to focus on quality, cost to gain from new FTAs: Secy

He underscored "the need for Indian businesses, especially MSMEs, to leverage Free FTAs and initiatives such as the Export Promotion Mission to expand their global footprint, strengthen international partnerships and advance India's export ambitions."

India has finalised eight free trade pacts in the last five years. It has already implemented the deal with Mauritius, the UAE, Oman, Australia, EFTA bloc (European Free Trade Association - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), and the UK.

A similar deal with New Zealand will come into force from October 20. A trade pact with the 27-nation European Union (EU) would be signed in December.

Read more: PM Modi's free trade push could lead to $140 billion GDP gain for India

The country's merchandise exports rose by 23 per cent year-on-year to USD 44.4 billion from USD 36.08 billion in September 2025, according to the government data released on Thursday.

Cumulatively, during April-September this fiscal, exports jumped 18.51 per cent to USD 259.89 billion.

As per estimates, India's services exports fell marginally by 0.87 per cent to USD 36.35 billion in September from USD 36.67 billion in September 2025.

The estimated value of service exports during April-September 2026-27 is USD 216.31 billion as compared to USD 199.02 billion in April-September 2025-26.

According to think tank GTRI, the US (50-53 per cent), the EU (15-18 per cent), and the UK (10-12 per cent) account for most of the country's overall services exports.

These three regions account for about 85.1 per cent of India's software exports (US - 54.1 per cent, EU - 18.6 per cent, and UK - 12.4 per cent).

"Generative AI tools and automated workflows are shrinking billing hours and contract sizes across entry-level programming, software maintenance, and traditional IT-enabled/BPO services," GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said.