On June 1, India's solar sector cleared a bar it set for itself years earlier. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's ALMM List-II mandate for solar PV cells became legally binding. Any government-linked solar project commissioned from that date must use cells from manufacturers on MNRE's approved list, or the paperwork will not go through. No subsidy. No net metering approval. In a tender, the contract can get thrown out. Most countries building out solar at scale do not have a rule this strict. India built one, and just tightened it further.

It did not happen overnight, which is part of the point. The Approved List of Models and Manufacturers framework dates back to 2019, when MNRE grew tired of substandard or misrepresented panels entering subsidized projects. List-I covered finished modules. List-II, the one that just became mandatory, pushes the same scrutiny down to cells, the components sitting one layer below the solar panel. Getting onto that list is not quick. A manufacturer needs Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification under IS 14086 first, followed by sample testing at a BIS lab, then a factory inspection. The whole process can run close to a year. India has been developing this system for six years. Most of the Asia Pacific region is still figuring out where to........

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