Export Preparedness Index 2024: Full State Rankings, Structural Drivers, and What They Mean for India’s Export Future

India’s ambition to emerge as a global trade powerhouse is increasingly being shaped not only by national policies but by the preparedness and competitiveness of its states and districts. Recognising this shift, the Export Preparedness Index 2024 provides the most comprehensive and data-driven assessment yet of how well Indian states and Union Territories are equipped to drive sustainable, diversified, and resilient export growth.

Released by NITI Aayog, the Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2024 goes far beyond measuring export volumes. Instead, it evaluates the entire export ecosystem—from infrastructure and governance to business conditions and export outcomes—capturing how prepared each state is to compete in an increasingly complex and fragmented global trade environment.

The latest edition places Maharashtra at the top among large states, overtaking Tamil Nadu, while also highlighting the rising export readiness of landlocked states, smaller economies, and district-level clusters. Together, these findings signal a structural transformation underway in India’s export geography.

Why Export Preparedness Matters in Today’s Global Economy

Global trade is no longer defined by predictable growth patterns. Geopolitical tensions, supply-chain diversification, inflationary cycles, sustainability norms, and digital trade have reshaped how nations and sub-national regions compete. For India, exports are not merely a source of foreign exchange; they are a critical lever for:

  • Economic resilience
  • Employment generation
  • MSME expansion
  • Global value-chain integration
  • Long-term productivity growth

India’s national goal of achieving $1 trillion in merchandise exports by 2030 and advancing toward the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047 cannot be achieved through central policy alone. It requires state-level capacity, district-level execution, and ecosystem-level readiness—precisely what the Export Preparedness Index 2024 seeks to measure.

What Is the Export Preparedness Index 2024?

The Export Preparedness Index 2024 is the fourth edition of India’s flagship framework for assessing export readiness at the sub-national level. It uses a uniform, data-driven methodology to benchmark all states and Union Territories on their ability to enable, support, and scale exports over time.

Four Pillars of Evaluation

The index is built on four core pillars:

1. Export Infrastructure

This pillar evaluates the physical backbone of exports, including:

  • Power and water availability
  • Ports, airports, and inland logistics
  • Warehousing, cold storage, and FTWZs
  • Road and rail connectivity

Efficient infrastructure reduces transaction costs and directly enhances export competitiveness.

2. Business Ecosystem

Accounting for the largest weightage, this pillar examines:

  • Macroeconomic strength
  • Cost competitiveness
  • Human capital and skills
  • MSME depth
  • Access to finance and credit
  • Industrial and innovation environment

States with strong business ecosystems are better positioned to attract investment and integrate into global value chains.

3. Policy and Governance

This pillar assesses:

  • Presence and quality of export-specific state policies
  • Ease of regulatory compliance
  • Digital governance and trade facilitation
  • Institutional coordination and grievance mechanisms

Effective governance reduces friction for exporters and accelerates scale.

4. Export Performance

This outcome-oriented pillar evaluates:

  • Export value and growth trends
  • Market and product diversification
  • District-level export activity
  • Export promotion effectiveness

Crucially, performance is assessed alongside preparedness, ensuring balance.

Together, these pillars are broken into 13 sub-pillars and 70 indicators, making EPI 2024 the most granular export-readiness assessment undertaken in India.

How States Are Categorised

To ensure fair comparison, EPI 2024 divides regions into two broad groups:

Large States

States with larger populations, land area, and GSDP

Small States, North-Eastern States & Union Territories

Smaller economies assessed within a separate peer group

Within each category, states are further classified as:

  • Leaders
  • Challengers
  • Aspirers

This structure recognises that export competitiveness is a journey and allows policymakers to focus on improvement pathways, not just rankings.

Export Preparedness Index 2024: Full State Rankings

Large States – Overall Ranking

  1. Maharashtra
  2. Tamil Nadu
  3. Gujarat
  4. Uttar Pradesh
  5. Andhra Pradesh
  6. Karnataka
  7. Punjab
  8. Telangana
  9. Haryana
  10. Madhya Pradesh
  11. Kerala
  12. Rajasthan
  13. Odisha
  14. West Bengal
  15. Chhattisgarh
  16. Jharkhand
  17. Bihar

These rankings reflect aggregate performance across all four pillars, not merely export volumes.

Small States, North-Eastern States & Union Territories

  1. Uttarakhand
  2. Jammu & Kashmir
  3. Nagaland
  4. Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
  5. Goa
  6. Tripura
  7. Sikkim
  8. Assam
  9. Himachal Pradesh
  10. Puducherry
  11. Meghalaya
  12. Manipur
  13. Mizoram
  14. Arunachal Pradesh
  15. Delhi
  16. Chandigarh
  17. Andaman & Nicobar Islands
  18. Ladakh
  19. Lakshadweep

Why Maharashtra Topped the Export Preparedness Index 2024

Maharashtra’s leadership position is rooted in balanced structural strength, not dependence on a single advantage. The state performs strongly across all four pillars.

Key Drivers of Maharashtra’s Ranking

  • World-class port infrastructure led by JNPA
  • Deep industrial base across engineering, automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and services
  • Strong financial ecosystem anchored by Mumbai
  • Large, export-linked MSME base
  • Relatively mature export governance and institutional capacity

Unlike states that score high primarily on export performance, Maharashtra’s advantage lies in its ecosystem readiness, making its export growth more sustainable over time.

Tamil Nadu and Gujarat: Consistent Export Powerhouses

Tamil Nadu, ranked second, continues to demonstrate exceptional diversification, with globally competitive manufacturing clusters in automobiles, electronics, textiles, leather, and machinery. Gujarat, ranked third, remains a dominant force in chemicals, petroleum products, engineering goods, and port-led trade.

The shift at the top reflects incremental gains by Maharashtra, not decline elsewhere—highlighting how competitive federalism is driving continuous improvement.

The Rise of Landlocked and Hinterland States

One of the most important signals from EPI 2024 is the strong showing of Uttar Pradesh, ranked fourth among large states. Despite being landlocked, UP has improved export readiness through:

  • District-level export action plans
  • One District One Product (ODOP) strategy
  • Improved logistics corridors
  • MSME export integration

This demonstrates that policy execution and institutional capacity can offset geographic disadvantages.

Small States: Uttarakhand Sets the Benchmark

Among smaller states and UTs, Uttarakhand leads due to focused industrial clusters, pharmaceutical exports, electronics manufacturing, and improving logistics. High rankings for Jammu & Kashmir and Nagaland underscore the role of niche products, GI goods, and targeted policy support.

Districts as the New Export Growth Engines

A major innovation in Export Preparedness Index 2024 is its emphasis on district-level competitiveness. Exports ultimately happen at the district level—where enterprises operate, workers are trained, and infrastructure bottlenecks emerge.

States that have empowered District Export Promotion Committees, mapped district export potential, and aligned skilling with export clusters consistently score higher, reinforcing a bottom-up export strategy.

Key Policy Lessons from Export Preparedness Index 2024

The index offers several national-level insights:

  • Export competitiveness is ecosystem-driven, not incentive-driven
  • Logistics efficiency and cost competitiveness are decisive
  • MSMEs must be integrated into global value chains
  • Export diversification improves resilience
  • Cooperative federalism accelerates best-practice diffusion

States that treat exports as a long-term development strategy, rather than a short-term revenue lever, consistently outperform peers.

Conclusion: From Rankings to Results

The Export Preparedness Index 2024 marks a turning point in how India understands export competitiveness. Maharashtra’s top ranking symbolises the rewards of balanced ecosystem development, while the broader rankings reveal a more geographically dispersed and inclusive export future.

As India moves toward its long-term economic ambitions, the real value of the Export Preparedness Index will lie not in rankings alone, but in how effectively states convert preparedness into sustained exports, employment generation, and global integration.

Comments are closed.