India, Sept. 24 -- India has moved quickly to put the building blocks of semiconductor manufacturing in place. Fabs, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) facilities, design initiatives, and a renewed policy push are creating an anchor for the industry.

But fabs alone will not make India globally competitive. Behind every semiconductor facility sits a much wider network of suppliers making equipment, components, high-purity gas and chemical systems, cleanroom infrastructure, speciality materials, and other critical products. And many of these suppliers may never be billion-dollar businesses.

For Manjunath Jyothinagara, Managing Director, KAS Group, this less visible layer of the supply chain will determine how robust India's...