According to report released by industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India's exports can reach $500 billion within five years, if the government provides proper attention in the form of incentives and easier export procedures.

"There is a need for a combination of policy initiatives, technology infusion, infrastructure improvement, access to newer markets, innovation in product development and improvement in scale of production," CII said

This massive figure of half a trillion dollars seems even more impressive compared to the current situation, where India's export target for 2007-08 is $160 billion. The CII said that India needed to be the world leader in exports in at least three of the four sectors of textile, leather, gems and jewellery and engineering.

"In these four sectors, India needs to be among the top three exporters in the globe, which accounts for more than 50 per cent of India's current export basket," said the CII report, ahead of the trade policy due on Friday.

The report also stressed that India should concentrate on fast growing markets in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries and Africa, where they currently account for only 3.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent of the total imports respectively. "These shares can easily be doubled with minimum efforts in the next two to three years," CII said.

Exports for the fiscal year 2007-08 are expected to be between $155 billion and $160 billion compared to $126 billion in 2006-07. The foreign trade policy (2004-09) expects exports to reach $200 billion in the current fiscal.