Beyond Cost: Harish Ahuja on India’s Next Manufacturing Chapter
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Mr Harish Ahuja
Managing Director,
Shahi Exports Pvt.Ltd.
TVC Media Team had the privilege of meeting Mr. Harish Ahuja, Chairman & Managing Director of Shahi Exports, India’s largest apparel exporter, at Bharat Tex 2026. With over five decades of manufacturing experience and more than 50 facilities across India, Mr. Ahuja shares his perspective on India’s global apparel opportunity, manufacturing competitiveness, sustainability, technology, and the road ahead for the industry.
Bharat Tex 2026 was Shahi Exports’ third consecutive participation, this time as a Legacy Partner. What did this recognition mean to your five-decade journey?
This year at Bharat Tex 2026, we participated as a Legacy Partner, which gave us the opportunity to reflect on our five decades of manufacturing. The timeline in our stall traced our growth from a home-grown beginning to over 50 factories across India today, employing a workforce of 1 lakh people.
This growth has run parallel to the industry's own transformation. Indian apparel manufacturing has moved from being seen primarily as a low-cost sourcing option to being a serious partner for global brands on quality, compliance, and sustainability. We have tried to be part of this shift and contribute to this transformation rather than simply benefit from it. We invested in productivity and worker well-being together through improvements in factory infrastructure, workforce programs, and research partnerships.
Our journey reflects a long-term commitment to growing alongside the country and contributing to the future of textile manufacturing in India.
Your Bharat Tex stall traced Shahi’s journey from a home-based business to India’s largest apparel manufacturer. Which elements resonated most with visitors?
The response to our stall was very encouraging. This year at Bharat Tex, we showcased our vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities across knit, woven, and denim, alongside our continued investments in digital transformation, material innovation, and sustainable manufacturing.
Visitors particularly appreciated our timeline, which traced Shahi's evolution from a small, home-based business founded by Mrs. Sarla Ahuja in 1974 to where we are today. The 3D hologram display was another highlight, offering an immersive look at our products and manufacturing innovations. Together, these experiences gave visitors a better understanding not only of the scale of our operations but also of how our capabilities have evolved over time.
Shahi shared insights through several speaking sessions at the event. What were the key messages you personally delivered, and how were they received?
One of the most encouraging aspects of Bharat Tex was the quality of the conversations. Across the sessions, there was broad agreement that India's competitiveness cannot be built on cost alone. The conversation has moved towards greater focus on resilient supply chains, productivity, sustainability, technology, and policy support for long-term growth.
My focus was also on connecting that optimism with the reality on the ground. India has a strong advantage because more than 90% of the value in our apparel exports is created within the country. We have a well-developed textile ecosystem and skilled local talent to support manufacturing. However, the industry continues to operate on thin single-digit margins, making large-scale investment and expansion increasingly difficult. For India to emerge as a global manufacturing leader, these strengths need to be supported by stable and predictable policies that improve industry profitability and give manufacturers the confidence to invest for the long term.
You described the Indian textile and apparel industry as being at an important inflection point. How effectively did Bharat Tex advance this conversation?
Events like Bharat Tex bring buyers, manufacturers, policymakers, and other stakeholders together for conversations that are often held in isolation. However, real structural shifts do not happen overnight.
The platform provided a structured space to align on the ground realities, but whether India strengthens its global position depends entirely on how we execute over the coming years. The true impact of these discussions will be seen over time through better policy support, upgraded technical capabilities, or deeper buyer trust. These outcomes will reflect in our industry numbers down the road, making this event part of a much longer and ongoing process.
As a fully vertically integrated company with over 50 manufacturing facilities and four textile mills, how did Shahi demonstrate its end-to-end capabilities at Bharat Tex 2026?
At our stall, our objective was to demonstrate what vertical integration means in practice. Across our manufacturing facilities and textile mills, our capabilities enable us to manage the manufacturing process from textile processing through to finished garments. Our hologram installation gave visitors an immersive, three-dimensional look at the products themselves.
For global brands, vertical integration is ultimately about reliability. It provides greater visibility across the value chain, enables faster decision-making, and enables us to respond more quickly to evolving customer requirements.
Your sustainability report highlights a 51% carbon-neutral energy mix and Fibre52® technology. What sustainability innovations did you showcase, and what was the response?
At Bharat Tex, we highlighted our approach to low-impact processing and innovative technologies that deliver measurable environmental benefits without compromising quality. We demonstrated our recent partnership with Innovo Fiber to scale Fibre52® technology in our knit processing operations.
Fibre52® replaces conventional cotton pretreatment with a low-temperature biochemical process that significantly reduces resource consumption while eliminating the use of caustic soda. Following extensive trials, the technology demonstrated reductions of around 25% in water consumption and 49% in steam usage compared to traditional methods. As part of our scale-up roadmap, we are transitioning approximately 25% of our knit-processing capacity to this system.
The feedback received has been very encouraging. Today, global brands are constantly seeking innovations that deliver sustainable solutions while maintaining fabric quality and production consistency. Sustainability is no longer viewed as a standalone initiative. But increasingly as a business requirement.
What were the most valuable outcomes or insights Shahi gained from participating in Bharat Tex 2026?
One of the biggest takeaways was the strong alignment across the industry on where the future is headed. Whether the discussion was around trade, sustainability, or skilling, there was broad recognition that India's edge depends on productivity, innovation, and a strong manufacturing ecosystem.
The conversations highlighted that long-term success requires improving margin pressures, strengthening local supply chains, and investing in worker well-being. It reaffirmed that the direction we have taken over the years remains relevant as the industry continues to evolve.
Based on your experience at Bharat Tex 2026, what is the single most important message or priority you would like to share with the industry as we move ahead?
If there is one message I would leave with the industry, it is that this is the time to think beyond short-term competitiveness. The global sourcing landscape is evolving rapidly, and buyers are increasingly looking to build long-term partnerships with manufacturers who can deliver consistency, speed, transparency, and sustainability at scale.
To meet these expectations, our focus must be on strengthening the manufacturing ecosystem through continued investments in technology, productivity, innovation, people, and sustainable manufacturing. India has many of the structural strengths required to succeed. The opportunity now is to translate those strengths into long-term execution and sustained investment.