India
India Sourcing: Your Gateway to the World's Fastest-Growing Manufacturing Economy
India’s moment in global sourcing has arrived. The combination of a billion-strong workforce, ambitious government manufacturing policy, rapidly improving infrastructure, and landmark free trade agreements with the UK and EU has repositioned India from a promising alternative to an essential sourcing destination for global procurement strategies.
Whether you are adding India to an existing China-led supply chain, building a diversified multi-market sourcing base, or exploring India for the first time, the opportunity is real and it is accelerating. ET2C has been building supplier relationships across India’s manufacturing regions for years, giving our clients access to vetted factories, on-the-ground quality oversight, and the local knowledge (out teams are based in Bangalore and New Delhi) needed to source effectively in a complex and rapidly evolving market.
India's Trade Agreements: A Game-Changer for UK and EU Buyers & Sourcing Teams
For UK and European businesses, the trade deal landscape around India has changed fundamentally. The UK-India Free Trade Agreement, signed in July 2025, delivers significant tariff reductions across a wide range of goods from textiles and apparel to engineering products and food categories. For UK importers, this translates directly into improved landed cost competitiveness and a material shift in the commercial case for India-origin sourcing strategy supply.
The India-EU trade deal, concluded in January 2026, extends similar benefits to European buyers. Taken together, these agreements position India as one of the most trade-advantaged sourcing markets available to Western importers with tariff access that China, Vietnam, and most other sourcing markets cannot currently match.
The practical implications are significant:
- Reduced import tariffs on qualifying goods, improving margin or price competitiveness
- Simplified rules of origin requirements making India-origin certification more straightforward
- Stronger IP protection frameworks and commercial dispute resolution mechanisms
- Increased confidence from Indian manufacturers to invest in export-grade production capability
ET2C helps clients understand exactly which product categories and HS codes benefit most from the new tariff schedules, so sourcing decisions are grounded in actual landed cost analysis rather than general assumptions. Sourcing & Procurement Service
Why India? The Strategic Case for Sourcing from India
Beyond the FTA tailwinds, India’s manufacturing trajectory makes a compelling independent case for inclusion in any serious global sourcing strategy.
Make in India and the PLI Scheme Policy Driving Capability
India’s government has backed its manufacturing ambitions with substantial policy infrastructure. The Make in India initiative has driven investment into industrial corridors, logistics upgrades, and export processing zones that are materially improving the ease of doing business with Indian manufacturers. For global sourcing teams the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme provides direct financial incentives to manufacturers in priority sectors. Electronics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, automotive components, and consumer products specifically to encourage them to scale production and invest in export capability.
For global sourcing teams, the practical effect is a supplier base that is better capitalised, more export-oriented, and increasingly capable of meeting international quality and compliance standards than it was even three years ago.
A Large, Diversified, and English-Speaking Supplier Base
India’s manufacturing landscape spans a vast geographic area and enormous range of categories. Unlike more concentrated markets, India’s industrial clusters are regionally specialised. Tirupur for knitwear, Ludhiana for engineering and hosiery, Surat for textiles, Pune and Chennai for automotive, Hyderabad and Bengaluru for pharmaceuticals and technology. This regional depth means there is usually a proven manufacturing cluster for most categories a global buyer needs.
English-language business communication, a well-developed legal framework, and familiarity with international quality and compliance standards also reduce the friction that buyers often encounter in other sourcing markets.
Competitive Labour Costs with Improving Productivity
India’s labour cost advantage relative to China has been a known factor for years. What has changed is the productivity story. Investment in automation, improved factory management, and a younger, better-trained workforce mean the cost-quality equation for India has improved significantly, particularly in sectors where PLI investment has been concentrated.
How ET2C Manages Your India Sourcing
India’s manufacturing opportunity is real, but it comes with complexity. The supplier landscape is vast and variable. Quality, capacity, and reliability differ significantly between factories even within the same category and region. Navigating this without an experienced on-the-ground presence is a high-risk approach.
ET2C’s India sourcing capability is built on direct supplier relationships across the country’s key manufacturing regions. Our teams, based in Delhi and Bangalore, conduct factory qualification, audit supplier compliance, manage quality throughout the production cycle, and handle the commercial and logistical coordination that keeps supply chains running to plan.
We also help clients think through the broader strategic sourcing question: which categories make most sense to source from India, and where does India fit alongside China, Vietnam, or other markets in a diversified supply chain? Our recommendations are driven by category analysis and landed cost modelling, not geography preference.
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Sourcing from India : FAQs
Frequency Asked Question
India is attracting more global sourcing because it combines a large, capable supplier base with improving manufacturing depth, strong talent availability, and growing export readiness—making it a practical diversification option.
Yes. We build supplier options that reduce concentration risk and strengthen resilience—so your sourcing strategy can handle disruption without sacrificing quality or delivery expectations.
De-risking means reducing dependency on a single country or region by building alternative supply options, so your supply chain is more resilient to disruption.
China Plus One is a strategy that keeps China as a key sourcing hub while adding another country for resilience. India is often chosen as the “Plus One” due to its scale, talent pool, and sector strengths.
Make in India is a government initiative designed to strengthen domestic manufacturing and increase global competitiveness—helping accelerate industrial growth and export capability.
PLI is a government-backed incentive approach intended to boost production and investment in priority sectors, supporting manufacturing growth and export momentum.
India is particularly strong in pharmaceuticals, electronics, automotive components (including EV parts), and textiles, where capability and supply depth are expanding.
Yes. India supports cost-effective production and can scale output, especially when supplier selection and production planning are aligned to realistic capacity and lead times.
Diversifying into India spreads sourcing risk and reduces reliance on a single geography, which can help maintain continuity when trade routes, policy, or global conditions shift.
Trade agreements can improve competitiveness by reducing or simplifying tariff barriers and supporting smoother trade flows—making a sourcing market more attractive for certain import routes.
India’s trade positioning is improving through major agreements, including the UK–India FTA (signed July 2025) and a newly concluded India–EU trade agreement (January 2026)—factors that can improve attractiveness depending on route and product mix.
The UK-India FTA, signed in July 2025, reduces import tariffs on a broad range of India-origin goods entering the UK. For UK importers, this materially improves the landed cost competitiveness of Indian supply relative to markets without equivalent trade access. The practical benefit varies by product category and HS code, so ET2C helps clients conduct category-specific tariff analysis before making sourcing strategy decisions.
India and China serve different roles in most sourcing strategies. China offers greater scale, deeper component ecosystems, and faster development-to-shipment timelines for complex, high-volume categories. India offers labour cost advantages, FTA-driven tariff benefits for UK and EU buyers, and growing capability in many export categories. Most sophisticated buyers use both, China as the primary source in volume-led categories, India as a complementary or growing alternative where category capability and tariff access are strongest. ET2C manages sourcing strategies and execution across both markets and advises on the right balance for each client’s specific product mix.
India’s strongest categories for export-grade manufacturing are textiles and apparel, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, automotive components, engineering and industrial products, and increasingly electronics. Within these categories, India offers a combination of competitive pricing, improving quality infrastructure, and, for UK and EU buyers, meaningful tariff advantages under the new trade agreements. ET2C can assess category fit and supplier availability for your specific sourcing strategy needs.
The most common challenges are supplier variability, quality and reliability differ significantly across India’s fragmented supplier landscape, logistics complexity, and lead time management. Without on-the-ground presence, these risks are difficult to manage at a distance. ET2C addresses them through our teams on the ground to deliver direct factory qualification, independent quality inspection throughout the production process, and local commercial management that keeps timelines on track. We also help clients set realistic expectations around lead times during the supplier development phase, where India typically requires more upfront investment than a more mature market.
For categories where we have established supplier networks in India, we can present qualified options within two to three weeks. For newer or more specialist categories, allow four to six weeks for thorough supplier identification, factory visits, and qualification assessment. We do not shortcut this process, the upfront investment in proper qualification is what separates a strong India sourcing programme from one that creates quality and delivery problems downstream.
Ready to Make India Part of Your Sourcing Strategy?
Whether you are exploring India for the first time, looking to take advantage of the new UK or EU trade agreements, or building a China+1 strategy that adds genuine diversification rather than just geographic spread, ET2C’s India sourcing team is ready to help. Let us show you what sourcing from India looks like when it is done properly.
