Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, issued Notification No. 62/2025-26 on 24 February 2026 permitting the export of 25 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of wheat under HS Codes 10011900 (durum wheat - other) and 10019910 (other wheat) while keeping the headline export-policy classification as "Prohibited". A second tranche of 25 LMT was authorised by Notification No. 13/2026-27 on 27 April 2026, bringing the cumulative quota envelope to 50 LMT (5 million tonnes). Public Notice No. 05/2026-27 (30 April 2026) prescribed allocation modalities for the second tranche: 18 LMT for large exporters, 5 LMT for state trading entities and cooperatives, and 2 LMT for MSMEs, with online applications open 1-10 May 2026 and authorisations valid for six months. The mechanism partially unwinds the May 2022 blanket wheat export ban (DGFT Notification 06/2015-2020) which had been in continuous force for nearly four years, while preserving DGFT's authority to retighten via the prohibition baseline. Pre-existing government-to-government exports to meet third-country food security needs remain permitted outside the quota envelope.

The Rajasthan State Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, approved the Rajasthan Aerospace & Defence Policy 2026 on 21 January 2026 in the same session that cleared the Rajasthan Semiconductor Policy 2026. The policy positions Rajasthan as a manufacturing and MRO hub for aircraft, helicopters, drones, missiles, avionics, satellite buses, armoured vehicles, radars, defence electronics, and precision engineering, targeting OEMs, system integrators, MSMEs, and startups under the Make in India / Atmanirbhar Bharat defence-industrial pivot. Projects are tiered (large / mega / ultra-mega) with differentiated incentive menus including capital grants, tax reimbursements, and turnover-linked incentives aligned with national DPEPP and iDEX frameworks.

The Government of Maharashtra, Industries Department, notified the Maharashtra Industry, Investment, and Services Policy-2025 on 31 December 2025, valid for five years and superseding the prior Maharashtra Industrial Policy 2019. The umbrella state-level instrument supports Maharashtra's "trillion-dollar economy by 2030" and "Developed Maharashtra 2047" vision with targets of ₹70.5 lakh crore (~USD 850 bn) cumulative investment, 50 lakh (5 million) jobs across manufacturing and services, and expansion of industry's share of Gross State Value Added to 30%. It is Maharashtra's first-ever combined industry + services + investment-promotion framework (prior policies were industry-only), establishes the unified "Invest Maharashtra" platform and revamped MAITRI 2.0 portal (125+ services, AI investor support, blockchain document verification), and empowers a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the Chief Minister to sanction bespoke customised-package incentives for Mega and Ultra-Mega Projects above the ₹500 crore threshold.

India's Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 659.47 crore (~USD 74.3 million) contract on 15 October 2025 with a consortium led by MKU Ltd (lead member) and Medbit Technologies Pvt Ltd for Night Sight (Image Intensifier) devices and accessories for the Indian Army's 7.62x51mm SIG716 assault rifles. The procurement is categorised as Buy (Indian-IDDM) — requiring greater than 51% Indigenous Design, Development and Manufacture content — under India's Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) defence-procurement framework, and is expected to benefit MSME component and raw-material suppliers.

On 1 February 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the National Manufacturing Mission (NMM) in the Union Budget 2025-26 as a horizontal umbrella framework extending the 2014 "Make in India" architecture across small, medium and large industries. The mission rests on five focal areas: (i) ease and cost of doing business; (ii) a future-ready workforce for in-demand jobs; (iii) a vibrant and dynamic MSME sector; (iv) availability of technology; and (v) quality manufacturing. It will deliver policy support, execution roadmaps, and a governance/monitoring framework binding central ministries with states. NMM specifically commits to building a clean-tech manufacturing ecosystem with explicit coverage of solar PV cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolysers, wind turbines, very-high-voltage transmission equipment, and grid-scale batteries — i.e., the full hardware stack for India's Panchamrit (500 GW non-fossil by 2030), FAME-III EV ramp, and National Green Hydrogen Mission. NMM is the first horizontal Indian manufacturing-mission instrument in the IPTM register; existing IND entries are sector-specific PLIs (electronics, batteries, steel, semiconductors) and the National Critical Mineral Mission. Operational rollout flows through subsequent Cabinet-level scheme approvals (e.g. Biopharma SHAKTI ₹10,000 cr, Chemical Parks ₹600 cr in BE 2026-27); the mission itself does not carry a single headline outlay because it is the framework rather than an instrument.