What products are made in India (2026 guide)
Published by George Korn · Last updated September 6, 2026
India’s export strengths are vertical: textiles and apparel (~$36B, with home-grown cotton), gems and jewelry (~$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
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.
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. 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 have no equal elsewhere. See our furniture manufacturers directory.
Gems and jewelry
About $30 billion of gems and jewelry leave India each year: diamond-set gold from Mumbai’s SEEPZ, 925 silver and gemstones from Jaipur, imitation lines at wholesale scale. See our jewelry manufacturers directory.
Carpets and rugs
India is the world’s largest exporter of handmade carpets with about 40% of world trade, woven in Bhadohi and Mirzapur. 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.
Global brands that manufacture in India
The list buyers actually look for: which global names already make or source their products in India. Useful to verify a label, or to spot a category where the supplier base is proven.
Phones & tech
Apparel
Home textiles
Furniture & home
Footwear & leather
Jewelry
The oldest motorcycle brand in continuous production is now Indian: built in Chennai, sold in over 60 countries, close to a million units a year. The traffic flows both ways, too: Tata owns Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Electronics now assembles iPhones in Karnataka.
Most global apparel and home brands split programs between India, China and Vietnam; India’s share of US-bound sourcing has grown every year since 2019, helped by the 2026 tariff gap.
Is buying “Made in India” cheaper inside India?
The question most guides skip. Short answer: not for global brands, but genuinely yes for export surplus and domestic labels.
Why export production does not show up cheap in Indian shops
Export lines ship out under contract and never touch domestic retail. When the same brands sell in Indian malls, the goods come back through importers with duty, GST and brand markup on top: an iPhone assembled outside Chennai usually costs more in a Delhi mall than in Dubai.
Where you can actually save
Domestic labels: FabIndia apparel and homeware, Titan watches or Forest Essentials skincare hold their own on quality at local prices.
Export surplus: Sarojini Nagar in Delhi and Fashion Street in Mumbai sell genuine overruns for a fraction of retail; check stitching and labels.
Tailoring: bespoke shirts and suits from Delhi or Jaipur tailors cost a fraction of Western made-to-measure.
The counterfeit reality
Palika Bazaar in Delhi and Heera Panna in Mumbai sell counterfeits at around 10% of retail. Quality is a lottery and customs at home can seize the goods. For legal bargains, stay with marked export-surplus outlets and factory stores.
Why global brands manufacture in India
Four reasons come up in every project we run.
India vs China, Bangladesh and Vietnam
Each origin has its sweet spot. The table compares the four hubs on the metrics buyers weigh in 2026.
| Metric | 🇮🇳 India | 🇨🇳 China | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | 🇻🇳 Vietnam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly labor cost (garments) | ~$1.50 | ~$6.50 | $0.60–1.30 | ~$3.00 |
| US tariff (2026) | 18% on most goods | 47% effective | 20% | 20% |
| Total exports 2024 | ~$440 B | $3,570 B | ~$55 B | $405 B |
| Top 3 industries | Textiles, gems & jewelry, pharma | Electronics, machinery, vehicles | Garments, pharma, jute | Electronics, textiles, footwear |
| Sweet spot | Cotton verticals, handmade & design-led goods | Full R&D and complex goods | Rock-bottom basics | Mid/high-end electronics at scale |
India’s edge is upstream: it grows the cotton, tans the hides and cuts the stone that other origins import. For the full comparison, read our comparison of sourcing origins in 2026.
What India does not make well, yet
Honesty keeps sourcing budgets safe. If your product lives in one of these categories, we will tell you so; our group also runs sourcing teams elsewhere in Asia for exactly that reason.
| Gap | What is missing | Reality check |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer electronics components | PCBs, displays, chips at Chinese depth | Flagship phones are assembled in India, but most components still come from East Asia |
| Sports footwear at scale | Athletic outsole and knit-upper ecosystems | Global sneaker programs remain concentrated in Vietnam and Indonesia |
| Technical synthetics | High-volume performance fabrics | Polyester and nylon technical cloth is still cheaper imported from China |
| Flat-pack particleboard furniture | Panel-furniture lines at IKEA volume | India’s edge is solid wood and hand work, not particleboard |
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.
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