Sustainability as a Competitive Strategy in India’s Paint Industry: Regulatory Drivers, Firm Practices and an Integrative Framework

India’s paint industry is undergoing its most significant restructuring in decades. Large new entrants have added substantial capacity, incumbent margins are under pressure, and ownership of a leading multinational subsidiary has changed hands. At the same time, regulation on lead content and plastic packaging, together with growing environmental awareness, is raising the importance of sustainability. This paper examines how sustainability is becoming a dimension of competitive strategy in the sector. It combines an integrative review of literature on competitive strategy, the natural-resource-based view, institutional theory and green innovation with a document analysis of regulatory texts, company sustainability reports and industry analyses published between 2016 and 2025. The findings show that regulation has established a baseline of compliance, particularly the 90 parts per million limit on lead in household and decorative paints. However, evidence of non-compliant lead paints on the market points to an enforcement gap. Leading firms have gone beyond compliance through renewable energy, water stewardship, low-emission products and packaging responsibility, but the depth of these practices varies considerably across firms. Building on these findings, the paper proposes a Sustainability–Competitiveness Pathway Framework linking regulatory push, market pull and competitive pressure to green capabilities and to economic, environmental and social outcomes. Four propositions and implications for managers and policymakers are presented.