India, Feb. 18 -- One year ago, India's plywood and panel industry crossed an inflection point. The implementation of mandatory Quality Control Orders (QCOs) marked not merely a regulatory reform, but the beginning of a structural transformation in a sector that has quietly supported India's housing, infrastructure and interior economy for over a century.

The Indian plywood and panel industry has historically been fragmented. Nearly 80 per cent of the sector comprises MSMEs, while large organized players account for only a small portion of production capacity. This fragmentation, though entrepreneurial in spirit, led to wide variations in product quality. In the absence of mandatory standards, a significant number of units operated witho...