India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and one of its two manufacturing giants by workforce, yet most buyers only know a fraction of what it actually exports. This guide maps what India makes well, what it makes better than anyone, and what it does not make yet, using export data from FY2024-25 and the trade context of 2026.
- India’s export strengths are vertical: textiles and apparel (~$36B, with home-grown cotton), gems and jewellery (~$30B), leather and footwear ($5.7B), handicrafts ($3.9B), furniture (~$2.2B+) and world leadership in handmade carpets and terry towels. Since February 2026, most Indian goods enter the US at an 18% tariff. Electronics assembly is growing fast but the component ecosystem is still young.
The main products made in India, by category
Textiles and clothing
India exported about $36 billion of textiles and apparel in FY2024-25, including $16 billion of ready-made garments, making it the world’s sixth-largest exporter in the sector. The structural advantage is vertical: India is a top-two cotton producer and the world’s largest producer of organic cotton, so fabric and garment come from the same country. Knitwear comes out of Tirupur, woven fashion out of Delhi-NCR, denim out of Ahmedabad, woolens out of Ludhiana. Our directory of clothing manufacturers in India profiles the factories we rate.
Home textiles
This is a category where India leads the world outright. It is the largest exporter of terry towels, holding about 61% of US towel import shipments, and the number two exporter of cotton bed linen. Trident runs the world’s largest towel capacity, Indo Count calls itself the world’s largest bed sheet maker, and the Panipat cluster recycles about a million tonnes of textile waste a year into rugs and throws. See our home textile manufacturers directory.
Leather, bags and footwear
India tans its own hides and exported $5.7 billion of leather, leather goods and footwear in FY2024-25, up 25% on the year. Kolkata makes about 60% of the leather goods, Kanpur and Chennai run the tanneries and heavy leather, Agra is the largest footwear cluster (see our shoe manufacturers directory). The UK trade agreement in force since July 2026 dropped British duties on this category to zero. Directories: bag manufacturers and shoe manufacturers.
Handicrafts, brass, ceramics and glass
India exported $3.92 billion of handicrafts in FY2024-25 through GI-registered specialist cities: brass in Moradabad, glazed ceramics in Khurja, blown glass in Firozabad, carved wood in Saharanpur. About 6.4 million artisans work in the sector, nearly two thirds of them women. See our handicraft manufacturers directory.
Furniture and wood products
Solid wood is India’s signature: sheesham, mango and acacia worked by the Jodhpur cluster’s 3,000+ exporters and 150,000 artisans, with the US taking about 41% of exports worth $2.2 billion and up. Hand carving, bone inlay and reclaimed-timber styles are essentially impossible to replicate at Asian flat-pack factories. Directories: furniture manufacturers and hotel furniture manufacturers.
Gems and jewellery
Around $30 billion a year of gems and jewellery leave India, which cuts and polishes most of the world’s diamonds in Surat and runs the colored-gemstone trade out of Jaipur. This is one of the deepest, oldest export sectors in the country; our jewelry manufacturers directory covers the private-label side.
Handmade carpets
India is the world’s number one exporter of handmade carpets with roughly 40% of global trade, centred on the Bhadohi-Mirzapur belt and its half-million artisans; our carpet manufacturers directory profiles the exporters, plus hand-tufted production in Panipat and design-led houses in Jaipur.
Natural stone
Granite from South India, marble from Rajasthan, sandstone and quartzite: India ships over a billion dollars of worked stone a year, with the US the top market for granite slabs and countertops; see our marble and granite manufacturers directory.
Other products made in India
Beyond the categories we source daily, India is a global force in generic pharmaceuticals, often called the pharmacy of the world, in engineering goods and auto components, in agrochemicals, spices, rice and tea, and in IT-enabled manufacturing services. Electronics assembly is the fast-rising story: major smartphone brands now assemble flagship phones in India, though the component ecosystem underneath is still being built.
What India does not make well, yet
Honesty keeps sourcing budgets safe. India is not the right base today for consumer electronics components at Chinese depth, for sports footwear at East Asian scale, or for high-volume technical synthetics where the fabric itself is imported. Flat-pack particleboard furniture is cheaper elsewhere. If your product lives in those categories, we will tell you so; our group also runs sourcing teams elsewhere in Asia for exactly that reason.
The 2026 tariff angle
Since the February 2026 trade deal, most Indian goods enter the United States at an 18% tariff, below competing origins. Furniture is the exception: Section 232 duties of 25% apply to every origin. The EU free trade agreement was concluded in January 2026 and awaits ratification.
Why global brands manufacture in India
Four reasons come up in every project we run. Raw materials are local, from cotton to hides to timber to stone, which shortens chains and simplifies traceability. Labor costs rank among Asia’s lowest in the garment sector, with capacity headroom tighter supply bases no longer have. Compliance depth is real: India leads the world in GOTS-certified facilities and SMETA, BSCI and SA8000 audits are standard in export clusters. And every product has a specialist city with generations of know-how behind it.
India vs other sourcing origins
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Cheapest labor? | India and Bangladesh, among Asia’s lowest garment wages |
| Best for cotton and leather products? | India, on local raw materials |
| Best for electronics? | East Asia, for components and assembly |
| Best US tariff position in 2026? | India at 18% on most goods |
| Best EU access today? | India’s FTA is concluded and pending ratification |
For the full comparison, read our comparison of sourcing origins in 2026.
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