Beyond Solar Panels

India has built one of the world’s largest solar-deployment machines — 162.15 GW of installed solar capacity by 30 June 2026 (MNRE), against a 2030 objective of 280 GW of solar within 500 GW of non-fossil capacity. But deployment has outrun manufacturing depth. This report reframes the question away from module assembly toward the industrial system beneath it: capability inverts value across the stack — India is strongest downstream in modules (~172 GW of ALMM-listed capacity) and materially weaker upstream in cells, wafers, polysilicon, specialty chemicals, industrial gases, solar glass and production equipment, where China holds roughly 85% of solar supply-chain capacity and about 95% of wafer capacity (IEA 2026). Across thirteen chapters it maps the manufacturing stack, the hidden material and equipment foundations, localisation economics, the industrial opportunity surfaces, state-level clusters, technology transitions and a roadmap to solar-manufacturing sovereignty — with an investment-intelligence playbook. Fifty-three tables, twenty-two figures and seven appendices; a companion data workbook is available with the data tier.