FTAs will push products from district hubs for exports: Piyush Goyal

India is looking to get duty-free access for different products - gold jewellery, toys, handicrafts and handlooms- identified under One District One Product (ODOP) initiative, to promote their exports, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Monday.

"We are doing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) where we are looking at duty-free access for all these products internationally so we can create international acceptance of these products," Goyal said at the launch of One District One Product gift catalogue and storefront on public procurement portal Government eMarketplace in Delhi.

India is negotiating trade pacts with the UK, Canada and European Union.

The minister said that besides ODOP, there is also the District as Export initiative which is a bottom up approach, not top-down.

Under the district as export hub initiative, the government aims to convert each district of the country into an export hub by identifying products with export potential, addressing bottlenecks for exporting these products, supporting local exporters/manufacturers to scale up manufacturing, and finding potential buyers outside India.

Goyal suggested developing one-stop gifting destinations with high quality suppliers, involving students of institutions like National Institute of Design and extensive training sessions for artisans for the success of the ODOP.

"Let us look at creating art and crafts villages at the G20 destinations across India. This can become the seed which will help artisans for years and help tourism and give visibility to ODOP," he said, adding that 55 cities in the country will host over 200 meetings during India's G20 presidency where tourist villages can be created.

Additional Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sumita Dawra said onboarding of ODOP products at GeM platform would help to promote those goods.

"There are a lot of opportunties for these goods. Ecommerce platforms too are selling these goods," she said.

Additional Chief Secretary - Information, MSME and Export Promotion - Navneet Sehgal said that states are taking a series of measures to promote goods under the ODOP.

"ODOP is helping in promoting inclusive growth of the state. We are strengthening clusters. We are trying to develop a complete ecosystem for these products," Sehgal said.

Goyal meets stakeholders from lab-grown diamond industry

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday held a meeting with stakeholders of the lab-grown diamond industry and discussed ways to boost the sector. "The sector holds immense potential to further bolster our diamond industry, enabling India to consolidate its stature as the diamond manufacturing hub of the world," Goyal said in a tweet.

Currently, India contributes around 15% to the global production of lab-grown diamonds.