JUNE, 202619In an exclusive interaction with Thiruamuthan, Assistant Editor at Industry Outlook, Sony Thayil, Chief Business Officer, Reliance Industries Ltd, a seasoned business leader with over 23 years of experience across Reliance Industries, Asahi India Glass, Jaquar Group, and Hindware, and an alumnus of Harvard Business School and IIM Calcutta, shares his perspective on the evolving building materials landscape, backed by deep expertise in P&L leadership, business transformation, and sustainable manufacturing ecosystems.Sony Thayil highlights that India's rapid construction growth is increasingly at odds with declining forest cover, making the transition away from traditional wood both a commercial and environmental necessity. He underscores how next-generation downstream materials, particularly PVC-based solutions, are emerging as high-performance alternatives, driven by durability, cost-efficiency, and scalability, while emphasizing the critical role of architect-led specification in accelerating industry-wide adoption.INDUSTRY INSIGHTSINDIA'S FORESTS ARE SHRINKING. DEMAND FOR WOOD KEEPS RISING Sony Thayil, Chief Business Officer, Reliance Industries There is a number that has stayed with me for years. India loses approximately 1.5 million hectares of forest cover every decade and a significant part of that loss is driven by demand for timber, plywood, and wood-based panels for construction and interiors.At the same time, India is building at a pace the world has rarely seen: millions of new urban homes every year, millions of square feet of commercial office space, and thousands of hotels, hospitals, retail stores, and public infrastructure projects.Both of these facts cannot remain true indefinitely. Something has to give.I have spent over two decades in the building materials industry working with architects, interior designers, build-ers, and developers across India, SAARC, and the Middle East. I have seen the inside of procurement decisions worth hundreds of crores. And I can say with some confidence: the shift away from wood in Indian interiors is no longer just an environmental aspiration.It is becoming a commercial and practical reality. The question is whether the industry will lead this shift, or simply react to it when it becomes unavoidable.The Hidden Cost of Wood That Nobody Puts on the BOMAsk any interior designer about wood and they will give you a familiar list of virtues: warmth, texture, naturalness, timelessness. These are real. But ask the same designer about their last project's snag list and you will hear an equally familiar set of complaints warping in Mumbai's monsoon humidity, termite damage in older structures, swelling around kitchen and bathroom fittings, inconsistent grain quality from batch to batch, and, increasingly, the sheer cost of premium timber.The Bill of Materials for a mid-range residential interior project today looks very different from what it did a decade ago. Solid wood furniture that was aspirational ten years ago is now a luxury that fewer projects can accommodate. Plywood, the workhorse of Indian interiors, has seen consistent price escalation driven by raw material Sony Thayil,Chief Business Officer
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