Goyal launches National Strategic Trade Command Centre: one dashboard for DGFT schemes and SCOMET

NSTCC: what happened?

Think of a cricket captain who can see every player’s numbers on one screen during a match. The NSTCC tries to give trade officials that kind of live view. Which scheme is working, which licence is stuck, which market is opening up: the aim is to spot it early and act.

• Launched in the presence of Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and DGFT Lav Agarwal (PIB, 15 Oct 2026).
• It offers interactive dashboards on trade indicators, scheme performance, pendency, processing times and compliance.
• Users can look at the data by Regional Authority, scheme, product, market or single application, depending on their access level.
• The plan is to grow it into a whole-of-government decision-support tool, with access later for ministries, States and Export Promotion Councils.

What are SCOMET and the other schemes it tracks?

• SCOMET stands for Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies. It is India’s list of dual-use items whose export needs a licence.
• Exports of these items are licensed by DGFT on the advice of an Inter-Ministerial Committee.
• Advance Authorisation lets exporters import inputs duty-free. EPCG allows capital goods to be imported at zero duty against an export obligation.
• An IEC (Importer Exporter Code) is required for most import and export business.

What will the command centre do?

Which laws and regimes apply?

• Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992: the basis for DGFT’s powers and the Foreign Trade Policy.
• Foreign Trade Policy 2023 lists SCOMET items in Appendix 3 to Schedule 2 of ITC(HS).
• Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act, 2005.
• India joined the MTCR (2016), the Wassenaar Arrangement (2017) and the Australia Group (2018).

What are the challenges?

• A dashboard only helps if the data feeding it is accurate and up to date.
• SCOMET backlogs come from slow inter-ministerial consultation, not from missing data.
• Sharing data more widely needs strong role-based access and protection of commercial information.
• Moving from reports to action requires officials who are trained and held accountable.

What should be done next?

• Hold time-bound IMC meetings and publish SCOMET processing timelines.
• Add customs and Export Promotion Council data, as the plan intends.
• Use the market analysis to help MSMEs make use of FTAs such as those with the UAE, Australia and New Zealand.
• Set up automated alerts for sudden import surges or sharp falls in exports.

What can Prelims ask?

• SCOMET: Special Chemicals, Organisms, Materials, Equipment and Technologies.
• DGFT works under the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• India is a member of the MTCR, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group, but not of the NSG.
• EPCG: zero-duty import of capital goods against an export obligation.

How to write about trade governance in Mains

Practice question (10 marks, 150 words): How can data-driven governance improve India’s export performance? Discuss with reference to recent initiatives. (GS-III)

• Intro: NSTCC launched on 15 Oct 2026.
• Features: dashboards, pendency tracking, market analysis.
• Strategic trade: SCOMET, export-control regimes.
• Limits: data quality, coordination, capacity.
• Conclusion: data should lead to simpler, faster rules.