Data-driven decision-support systems such as the National Strategic Trade Command Centre can shift trade governance from reactive reporting to proactive intervention. Discuss, with reference to export promotion schemes and FTA utilisation.

The Department of Commerce launched the National Strategic Trade Command Centre (NSTCC) on 15 October 2026. It pulls DGFT data into one set of dashboards and aims to move trade governance "from periodic reporting towards continuous monitoring" [1]. The shift is real, but it depends on the quality of the data and on officials acting on it.

Enabling proactive governance

• Integrated monitoring: officials can drill down from the national level to Regional Authorities, schemes, products and individual applications [1].
• Benchmarking Regional Authorities creates peer pressure [1].
• Pendency visibility: after reviewing the SCOMET dashboard, the Minister ordered weekly Inter-Ministerial Committee meetings to clear the backlog [1].
• Planned automated alerts move monitoring from describing problems to predicting them [1].

Export promotion schemes

• It tracks export obligations under Advance Authorisation and EPCG. CAG found 1,08,798 EPCG authorisations still unredeemed after their obligation period had ended (March 2021) [2].
• An earlier audit put the revenue implication of unmet AA/EPCG obligations at ₹4,205 crore [3].
• Alerts sent before obligation periods end could replace audit findings that arrive years too late.

FTA utilisation

• NSTCC assesses trade-agreement utilisation and market-wise opportunities [1]. Trade Connect's Tariff Explorer helps exporters gauge FTA benefits [4].
• The current metric counts Certificates of Origin (4.45 lakh under the India–UAE CEPA since May 2022 [5]). It does not measure the share of eligible exports that actually claimed the preferential tariff.

Limitations

• Garbage in, garbage out: CAG noted that the online system does not verify uploaded documents [2]. A clean dashboard can hide real defaults.
• No partner-country customs data in Phase I, so true utilisation rates cannot be measured [1].
• Limited accountability: access is restricted to officials by role, and there is no statutory base or published baseline [1].
• Dashboards flag delays but cannot clear them, as the SCOMET meetings show.

NSTCC can make trade governance anticipatory, but only if it is fed verified data and officials act on what it shows. The way forward is to match shipping bills with authorisations automatically, publish pendency figures and true FTA-utilisation rates, and bring in States and Export Promotion Councils as planned [1]. That would strengthen accountability and cooperative federalism, and base India's export strategy on evidence rather than estimates.