You could hear it in the conversations.
“This must run without stopping.”
“We need to see the proof on our phones.”
“How fast can you support us in Indore? In Guwahati?”
No one was buying stories. Everyone wanted solutions that deliver cleanliness you can measure, not cleanliness you can assume.
Robots navigated crowds on their own. Laundry systems tracked every garment like inventory gold. Public restrooms were mapped like digital infrastructure. And domestic manufacturers spoke boldly about taking on global competition.
This is not the same industry we met even three years ago.
This is India cleaning smarter — and demanding smarter service from those who power its hygiene.
The Clean India Show did not just launch products. It launched a new kind of buyer.
At the 21st Clean India Show, India’s cleaning and hygiene market proved beyond doubt that this sector now draws buyers who are informed and decisive.
Procurement teams from facility management companies, hospitals, infrastructure firms, airports, hospitality groups, logistics facilities, large-format retailers and rapidly growing housing communities arrived not to learn what is available — but to confirm what is ready for deployment. Their questions were precise, technical and grounded in operational stakes, covering uptime, throughput, warranty, verification technology, SLAs, renewability and scale.
This was the strongest validation that the cleaning industry in India has matured into a market where hygiene is business performance not a support function.
Procurement is Now a Technology Decision
Buyers across sectors made it clear that manual operations cannot scale with the growth of Indian built infrastructure. Airports, metros and high-traffic destinations are under constant pressure to maintain standards that match global benchmarks — without being allowed downtime. Technology is being viewed not as an enhancement, but as the only viable solution to keep pace with India’s speed of development.
One of the strongest signals came from the autonomous cleaning displays. Facility managers did not ask, “How does the tech work?” They asked:
- How many hours can it operate continuously
- What is the charging cycle
- How does it navigate crowds
- Does it integrate into SLA reporting
Such questions reflect an advanced understanding of maintenance engineering. The introduction of AI-driven autonomous floor care systems with smart mapping and encrypted camera solutions directly matched these demands.
Service Assurance versus Product Cost
This shift was especially evident in laundry conversations. While equipment was inspected for structure and finish, evaluations quickly moved into warranty, after-sales, network reach, digital monitoring, and chemical compatibility. Buyers were no longer charmed by machinery that merely works — they insisted on machinery that keeps working, and proves that it is working.
Representatives from Tier-2 and Tier-3 hospitals and hospitality chains compared service downtime risks across brands. They described how inefficiencies propagate in laundry operations — a delayed load becomes a delayed discharge in a hospital or a delayed room turnaround in a hotel. Equipment must guarantee continuity. Manufacturers who offered remote visibility into resource usage and faster local support received the most engagement.
Accountability is Now Data-Driven
A pivotal behavioural shift emerged from FM and housekeeping contractors. They no longer want to “estimate” effort or “assume” completion — they want proof of performance and dashboards that track every action.
Solutions like Zoho FSM from Zoho Corporation Private Limited resonated immediately because they replaced:
- verbal assignments → with logged task dispatch
- trust-based supervision → with visible compliance records
- manual reporting → with photographic job closure
As one exhibitor described through live demos, a cleaning supervisor can now confirm whether an assigned task was completed, by whom, and within how long — without being physically present. This ability to enforce hygiene standards remotely has turned cleaning operations into measurable workflow systems — not blind labour deployment.
Safety-Led Procurement is Rising
Indian skylines are evolving faster than their maintenance models. Façade access has long been the most dangerous cleaning operation in metropolitan zones. Visitors from real estate development, industrial facilities and public infrastructure acknowledged that manual height access is nearing regulatory and insurance limitations.
Drone-assisted cleaning was discussed as the safest and most compliant alternative for high-rise assets. FM heads explained that one incident on a façade can shut down an entire building handover timeline. Automation is now the only operational method that ensures humans are not put in harm’s way.
Consumer-Grade Services for Institutional Hygiene
Public expectations around hygiene have transformed permanently in recent years — especially during and after the pandemic. What was once tolerated as “service quality” is now viewed as brand credibility. Procurement teams in hospitality, aviation and retail visited stalls with sensory criteria with regards to smell, premium feel, refresh cycles, etc.
Products that enhanced the emotional experience of cleanliness — fabric-like tissues, high-concentration air fragrances received attention from CX strategists and brand heads, not only procurement teams.
Rise in Digital Literacy
Not long ago, many FM companies struggled to adopt even digital checklists. Today, software-led housekeeping and laundry systems saw high conversion conversations because buyers have experienced firsthand the revenue leakage, manpower misallocation, quality dip from errors and credibility loss in disputes.
Platforms like O’terri and SMRT Lite from MKS Oterri Pvt. Ltd and SMRT Systems Inc respectively enabled buyers to visualise a world where no garment is unaccounted for, no stain undocumented, and no pickup untracked. What stood out was the steady footfall of owner-entrepreneurs from mid-market laundries, not driven by luxury upgrades but by survival strategy. Automation is not aspirational, it has become competitive protection.
Sanitisation as Urban Infrastructure
One of the show’s silent revelations was the expansion of cleaning responsibility beyond institutions and into public life. Visitors who interacted with digital sanitation ecosystems such as WOLOO (World of Loo) expressed a recognition that safe washroom access must be treated as urban infrastructure, not a private amenity.
This was particularly relevant for operators managing transport hubs, tourist zones and retail clusters where hygiene perception ties directly to economic viability. Public sanitation is finally becoming professionally managed, tech-monitored and demand-led.
Sustainability is Now Quantified, Not Claimed
The strongest indication of maturity around sustainability was the type of questions asked by buyers:
- What is the percentage of recycled input material
- How long does the product last
- What is the post-use waste outcome
- Can carbon emissions be reported
This translates sustainability from philosophy to performance. Exhibitors with reclaimed and recyclable material innovations experienced demand not framed as “green interest” but as procurement compliance from hospitality, retail and corporate ESG mandates. Eco Spindles’ booth exemplified this shift, as buyers evaluated sustainability through lifecycle validation, not marketing terms.
Engineering Trust on Domestic Brands
A decade ago, institutional buyers defaulted to imported equipment believing it meant reliability. Today, domestic manufacturers are being evaluated on their own strengths:
- Faster service turnaround
- Component adaptability for local conditions
- Accountability built into vendor relationships
- Lower downtime through proximity
Indian brands like Stas Group presented in-house engineered systems with certified testing and controlled quality — and saw enquiries focused heavily on support availability and upgrade cycles. This shift shows that “Made in India” is now backed by earned credibility.
Expansion Beyond Metro-Only Mindsets
Delegations from rapidly urbanising non-metro regions highlighted a major acceleration: commercial hygiene capacity is being demanded everywhere. Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities have:
- new hospitals
- new hotels
- new industrial estates
- new airports
- new housing clusters
- new retail complexes
Their cleaning demands are sophisticated from Day 1 — because they have benchmarked standards from global travel, media and digital expectations. Laundry automation suppliers confirmed that significant lead volumes originated outside metros — proving that India’s hygiene uplift is geographically broadening.
Demand for Risk-Removal
The dominant intent reflected in visitor enquiries was risk management: risk of service disruption, safety incidents, brand embarrassment, operational blindness, hygiene non-compliance and rising utility costs
Buyers want systems that eliminate points of failure — using automation, software, proofing and remote visibility. The more critical the asset (airport, hospital, high-rise), the stronger the drive to remove uncertainty. This trend redefines procurement from price negotiation to risk transfer.
Economic Intelligence of New Hygiene Buyer
From the conversations observed across three days, the new buyer demonstrates these traits. India’s hygiene industry is not catching up. It is maturing ahead of legacy markets through the sheer urgency of scale.
The most significant achievement of Clean India Show this year was not what was on display it was what was being demanded. Buyers expected performance, uptime, traceability and experience as their baseline, not premium offerings.
India’s cleaning ecosystem has decisively shifted from tool purchase to outcome assurance. The smarter cleaning future is not approaching it is already being implemented. And for the first time, India is leading the curve in defining hygiene performance, instead of merely adopting it.