New Delhi, March 16 -- A mobile device, a vaccine vial, a village Wi-Fi line, a TV show-four everyday scenes that may not be directly connected. Yet each depends on the one thing most of us never think about: advanced glass from a 175-year-old cornerstone company.

India's manufacturing story usually spotlights big-ticket sectors like smartphones, semiconductors, vaccines, and data centres. But behind them is a quiet foundation built from glass, ceramics, and material science.

In 2012, we set up our optical fibre manufacturing plant in Chakan, near Pune, our first factory in the country.

Picture a strand thinner than a human hair, carrying pulses of light that become Microsoft Teams calls, digital payments, and cricket streams. Fibre li...