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India-UK CETA could rewrite India’s export map
This article is authored by Gaurav Shisodia, VP & country manager, Payoneer India.
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For decades, India’s services-export story has largely been associated with a handful of major technology and commercial hubs. That map is beginning to widen.
Across Tier-II and Tier-III cities, technology companies, consulting firms, digital agencies and other service businesses are increasingly equipped to work with customers overseas. The India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) could give these businesses a stronger route into one of India’s most important international markets.
CETA, which came into force on July 15 2026, covers 137 services sub-sectors, including IT and IT-enabled services, professional services, education and business services. The UK is already a significant economic partner, with bilateral trade in goods and services at approximately $56 billion and a joint ambition to double bilateral trade by 2030.
For smaller service businesses, this matters because international expansion no longer necessarily begins with opening an office overseas. A software company, consulting business or digital agency can increasingly acquire and serve a UK customer while continuing to operate from India.
The bigger opportunity is, therefore, not simply to win an overseas project. It is to build repeat business and longer-term customer relationships that can make international revenue a sustained part of a regional company’s growth.
Regional India already has a strong foundation to build on.
India’s services exports reached $421.3 billion in FY2025–26, reinforcing the sector’s growing importance to the country’s export economy. At the same time, some of the infrastructure and entrepreneurial activity supporting technology and digital services are spreading beyond the traditional metros.
Of the Software Technology Parks of India’s 73 centres, 65 are located in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. That footprint is important because it points to a wider geography of technology activity from which the next generation of services exporters can emerge.
Across these cities, IT and IT-enabled services providers, software firms, web and application development companies and specialised consulting businesses form a growing services base. Marketing agencies, design firms and other digitally enabled professional-service businesses broaden the opportunity further.
Many of these businesses have one significant advantage: what they produce can travel digitally. They can reach customers thousands of kilometres away without recreating the physical infrastructure traditionally associated with exporting. For regional companies looking at the UK, that lowers an important barrier to entering an international market.
Technology is particularly well placed to lead this shift because geography matters less when the product or service itself can be delivered digitally.
The scale is already substantial. Telecommunications, computer and information services accounted for $206.6 billion, or 49.03% of India’s total services exports in FY2025–26. This creates room for businesses of very different sizes and specialisations to participate.
For a regional company, the opportunity could take several forms: developing a web application for a UK client, implementing software, providing IT support, delivering business-process services or offering specialised technology consulting. Professional-service firms and marketing agencies can similarly serve UK businesses from India.
This is where CETA can have an impact beyond the headline trade numbers. A more predictable environment can give regional businesses greater confidence to look at the UK not just as a source of occasional projects, but as a market in which they can build lasting commercial relationships.
Regional India has already shown that export success can extend beyond the largest metros. In FY2023–24, Tiruppur recorded $3.99 billion in merchandise export, Jaipur $3.56 billion, Coimbatore $3.31 billion, Rajkot $2.95 billion and Morbi $2.73 billion.
CETA can strengthen this existing base, particularly across sectors such as textiles, leather and engineering goods. This merchandise strength also provides useful context for the services opportunity: Regional India already has established export clusters, while digitally delivered services offer these economies another route into global trade. Goods and services can therefore grow alongside each other.
Opening access to a new market is only part of the opportunity. The bigger test will be whether regional businesses can convert initial projects into repeat business, longer-term client relationships and sustainable international revenues.
As their overseas customer base grows, the financial side of operating across borders also becomes more important. Cross-border collections need to remain straightforward, businesses need clear visibility over incoming receivables, and payment flows need to be predictable enough to support planning. As companies expand across markets, they also need to think carefully about how different currencies affect their cross-border operations.
This is where cross-border fintech platforms can play an important enabling role. By making it easier for businesses to receive international payments and manage incoming payment flows, they can reduce some of the financial complexity involved in serving overseas customers. For smaller regional businesses, access to this infrastructure can be particularly important as international activity grows.
These capabilities sit alongside specialised talent, reliable delivery and a strong understanding of the UK market. Together, they can help regional businesses move from serving individual overseas customers to building a more consistent international business.
Regional India already has many of the ingredients needed to capture this opportunity: Specialised talent, entrepreneurial activity, digital delivery capabilities and an established export base. If these strengths come together with the right cross-border financial infrastructure, CETA could do more than create new opportunities with the UK; it could help widen the geography of India’s services-export economy itself.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Gaurav Shisodia, VP & country manager, Payoneer India.
