We have to be more transparent with trade data to help stakeholders take best decisions: Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal launched the Trade Intelligence & Analytics (TIA) Portal today in New Delhi. The Minister said that business needs to be more transparent with trade data to help stakeholders take the best decisions.

Shri Goyal stated that the Trade Intelligence Portal will open up new insights for importers, exporters, startups, and MSMEs. He added that smaller businesses, even in the remotest regions, will now have access to data that was previously available only to larger enterprises.

The Minister highlighted that there are huge opportunities in the global services sector that will now be accessible to all. He also noted that the portal will help exporters better utilise the Free Trade Agreements.

The Minister said that unless exports contribute significantly to foreign exchange reserves, it will be difficult to bring stability to forex rates, and without such stability, India will remain vulnerable to foreign forces. He described the current world tariff situation as a wake-up call and urged that government and the private sector must pool resources at this critical moment to avoid regretting a lost opportunity.

Shri Goyal invited stakeholders to bring their demands and assured that the Ministry will make every effort to address them. If an issue concerns the Department itself, it will be resolved quickly; if it concerns other departments, Commerce will actively coordinate and work towards a solution. He urged stakeholders to be more demanding so that necessary improvements can be accelerated.

Shri Goyal said the Ministry of Commerce has put in significant effort to develop this platform. He said the portal has the potential to support trade diversification, expand India’s trade basket to newer areas and newer products, and help recognise lost opportunities.

Recognizing the need for a robust intelligence and analytics framework to support evidence-based policymaking and enable targeted sectoral interventions, the Department of Commerce initiated the development of the Trade Intelligence & Analytics (TIA) Portal in March 2024. The Department felt it necessary to expand these capabilities across all commodity and territorial divisions, Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), and missions abroad in target countries.

In this context, the Department has developed a one-stop analytics Trade Intelligence & Analytics (TIA) Portal, designed to enhance trade analytics and foster data-driven evidence-based policymaking through a comprehensive and integrated platform. This one-stop solution caters to various perspectives, including India, global, and bilateral trade, with multiple databases covering trade and macro-economic indicators, providing trade insights crucial for informed decision-making. TIA Portal serves as a centralized digital hub that consolidates diverse trade databases—both global (UN Comtrade) and bilateral—into a single integrated system. Multiple existing analytics requirements were designed and developed into automated analytical capabilities, which now offer depth and breadth in understanding India’s bilateral trade dynamics as well as global trade flows between more than 220 nations. Trade Watch Tower provides country and commodity-level intelligence through specialized tools and visualisations that allow users to identify global as well as bilateral trends with enhanced analytical capabilities for identifying market diversification opportunities.

The portal offers more than 270 interactive visualisations across over 28 dashboards. With the phasing out of legacy trade information dissemination portals such as the Department of Commerce Monitoring Dashboard, Niryat Portal and Tradestat Portal, the new and more exhaustive capabilities of the TIA Portal significantly improve accessibility and usability of trade data at one place. Database collation has been automated through APIs for convenient user access, and seamless data extraction capability has been developed to extract and download commodity and country data. Automation has also been undertaken for workflows such as the Monthly Trade Report (more than 300 pages) and surge reports prepared in two versions based on trade alert data and final data (each more than 30 pages).

The Trade Data Analytics Portal is a cost-effective, open-source solution that prioritizes accessibility, scalability, and user-centric design. With no software licensing costs and only minimal server infrastructure expenses, it offers a sustainable model for long-term deployment. The portal integrates intuitive visualizations, advanced drill-down tools and automated workflows that reduce manual data handling and duplication of effort. By replacing fragmented and ad-hoc analytics with a unified and automated system, the portal enhances operational efficiency and empowers stakeholders to base strategies and policy decisions on empirical evidence. This improves responsiveness to global trade developments and strengthens the Department’s capacity for proactive, data-driven interventions.