Overview
- The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade issued Press Note No. 3 that permits FDI in inventory-based e-commerce exclusively for exports of goods manufactured or produced in India.
- The decision was announced on July 23 and will take effect only after a notification under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and operational rules from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.
- Officials say DGFT will publish implementation details and safeguards in the coming weeks and that full operationalisation could take several months.
- E‑commerce firms including Amazon welcomed the move as a way to help regional manufacturers and SMEs reach overseas buyers while trade bodies warned strict separation of export and domestic stock and robust data and tax safeguards are needed.
- The change builds on India’s long-standing split between marketplace and inventory models and is aimed at lifting e‑commerce exports from current low levels toward broader export targets by giving platforms a new channel to aggregate and ship Indian-made goods abroad.