PRNewswire

New Delhi [India], October 22: India's combined goods and services exports reached an all-time high of $863.1 billion in FY26, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Services did the heavy lifting: they rose 8.7% to a record $421.3 billion, up from $387.5 billion a year earlier, and now make up 48.8% of the country's total export basket. Back in FY15, services exports stood at $158.1 billion.

But the road ahead demands even greater resilience, more rigorous execution and stricter regulatory compliance. The Centre's target is $2 trillion in exports by 2030-31, split evenly at $1 trillion each for goods and services. That means more than doubling today's record in five years, a point a Commerce Ministry official made in August, when he said the goal calls for structural transformation rather than incremental gains. E-commerce shows the scale of the climb: the government's target of $200-300 billion in e-commerce exports by FY30 starts from an estimated $4-5 billion in FY23, according to a July 2024 EY-ASSOCHAM report. Ambitions of that scale raise a simple question: who, exactly, is going to deliver them?

That question sat at the heart of the Payoneer India Cross-Border Excellence Awards 2026, presented in association with The Economic Times. On the evening of September 25, in New Delhi, the programme answered it in two ways: first with a summit, then with an awards ceremony.

Before the trophies, the playbook

After a welcome address by Pranbihanga Borpuzari, Senior Editor, Economictimes.com, the evening moved through three conversations, each diving into a different stage of an Indian business's journey abroad: getting access, finding the route, and building the structure to stay.

Nagesh Devata, Senior Vice President and Head of APAC, at Payoneer, delivered the inaugural address, India's Next Export Leap: Turning Global Market Access into Growth. Earlier that summer, on July 15, the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement entered into force, giving zero-duty access on about 99% of tariff lines, covering nearly all of India's export value to Britain, and opening services commitments across 137 sub-sectors, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The India-EU free trade agreement, concluded in January, awaits ratification, and Oman's agreement is in force, while the signed New Zealand agreement is set to expand access.

The panel that followed, India's New Growth Corridors: Building Pathways to Global Markets, brought together Dr. Abhay Sinha, Director General of the Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC), Commodore Bunty Sethi, IN (Retd.), Director, Aerospace & Defence, UK India Business Council, and Dr. Sridevi Arunachalam, Founder, Indo - UAE Economic Chamber of Commerce, with Borpuzari moderating. Between them sat two of the most consequential corridors for Indian exporters today: services, now close to half of the country's export earnings, and advanced manufacturing tied into global supply chains.

The third conversation entered the regulatory landscape. The fireside chat, Going Global: Navigating ODI Regulations & Compliance for Indian Businesses, featured MS Mani, Partner at Deloitte, and Pashupati Nath, Partner at Khaitan & Co, in discussion with Gaurav Shisodia, Vice President & Country Manager, Payoneer India. For a growing business, the step from exporting to a market to setting up an entity in it is where ambition meets paperwork, and where the rules on overseas direct investment decide how smoothly that step is taken.

The awards were presented in two acts, from 7:00 PM and again from 8:00 PM, with the compliance conversation placed squarely between them. Recognition and know-how were shared on one stage, and the dinner and networking that closed the night gave both room to carry on.

The problem: A growth story without its protagonists

The summit's agenda mirrored the problem the programme was built to solve. India's recognition landscape is crowded with startup and entrepreneurship honours, but very few platforms focus specifically on businesses that have built and scaled international revenue. Businesses earning international revenue have not always received recognition proportionate to their contribution.

That invisibility carries a real cost. A mid-sized exporter pitching a distributor in Dubai or a procurement team in Frankfurt has little independent, third-party validation to point to. Many businesses serving global customers also defy tidy labels, whether a bookkeeping firm running offshore finance teams, a regional OTT platform selling to the diaspora, or a steelmaker supplying renewable-energy projects abroad. Lumped into generic categories, they are either misjudged or missed altogether.

The programme's mission spoke directly to that problem statement: to set a national benchmark for export excellence, backed by a transparent evaluation and an expert jury, so that recognition means something to global partners and not just to peers at home. Its vision was captured in the sentiment of honouring the visionaries building India's $2-trillion export future.

The culmination of a recognition journey

The recognition carried weight because the programme was designed to look beyond headline growth. Its jury, evaluation framework and categories reflected the different ways Indian businesses build a presence abroad.

A jury that demonstrated credibility: Four jurors brought four vantage points: Dr. Abhay Sinha of SEPC on export policy and promotion; Dr. Abhilasha Gaur, CEO of SSC NASSCOM, on the talent pipeline behind India's services exports; Dr. Sridevi Arunachalam, Founding Chairman and President of the Indo UAE Economic Chamber of Commerce, on bilateral trade and market access; and Sarita Raichura, Director at Blume Ventures, on what it takes to scale a company.

A transparent, weighted evaluation framework: Nominees were scored on a weighted framework, and the weights tell their own story. Growth and scale carried 40%, measured on revenue trajectory over two to three years, with billed foreign revenue as the yardstick for service exporters. Market reach and diversification carried 30%, a clear signal that dependence on a single overseas market is a risk rather than a strength. Innovation and differentiation (15%), employment and community impact (10%), and digital infrastructure and payments readiness (5%) completed the picture of a business built to last abroad.

Categories that exhibit how India actually exports: Instead of one catch-all trophy, sixteen categories across four tracks gave distinct business models a fair hearing: six for service exports, three for e-commerce product verticals, four independent categories spanning direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, global employers, women-led export businesses and incorporation partners, and three regional honours covering North India, South India, and West & East India.

The top honours, an ecosystem celebrated

The awards ceremony ensured it represented a diverse cross-section of the new export economy. Technology and services were there in force: SalesCode.ai, an AI-native route-to-market platform for consumer goods companies, says it operates in 25 countries, while Nexdigm reports clients in more than 50. But so were businesses that rarely feature in conversations about India's global rise. Anuradha Gupta, CEO of Amantya Technologies Pvt Ltd, took home the Women in Export Excellence title. Amantya is a global technology company working across telecom, cloud, AI, and digital engineering. CTA Apparels, the Global Employer winner, employs more than 6,000 people. The SaaS & B2B Solutions honour went to Xoxoday, a B2B SaaS company focused on rewards, incentives, loyalty and recognition. Ziegler Aerospace, which makes structures and seat components for aviation customers abroad, was named Regional Export Leader in the South India category. Careerera LLC received the Edtech award for its online platform focused on career advancement, upskilling and reskilling.

The impact: A benchmark, a stage and a signal

Measured against the problem it set out to solve, the programme leaves behind three things.

The evaluation framework offers a practical picture of what the programme values in export-ready businesses. For businesses still building toward global scale, that is a practical checklist.

Winners gain visibility across The Economic Times and Payoneer platforms and their social channels, putting their stories in front of investors, partners and decision-makers. For a firm pitching a buyer overseas, a nationally benchmarked recognition is credibility it can carry into the room.

By pairing the ceremony with sessions on trade agreements, growth corridors and overseas investment rules, the programme treated recognition and capability as two halves of one job. The message to the sector was clear: the next phase of India's export growth will be won as much on execution as on ambition.

India's export story has long been told in aggregates, in billions and percentages and targets. On one evening in New Delhi, it was told in names, celebrating the businesses building what India will take to the world and signalling the road ahead.

About Payoneer

Payoneer is the financial platform for cross-border business and global payments. Payoneer empowers millions of businesses with the financial tools and services they need to grow and transact globally with confidence. Payoneer makes it easier for businesses, particularly in emerging markets, to connect to the global economy, pay and get paid across borders, manage their funds across multiple currencies, and grow their businesses.

About The Economic Times

The Economic Times is India's leading financial daily and one of the world's most widely read English-language business publications. Its digital and print platforms reach executives, policymakers, investors and business leaders across the world.

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