The prime minister conducted a quarterly sectoral review with the Ministry of Mines.
Acquiring overseas assets is considered vital for the country’s long-term economic and strategic goals, focusing on ensuring stable supply chains for essential minerals in high demand across sectors like electric mobility, renewable energy, electronics, and defense, sources mentioned.
The advancements in overseas asset purchases align with national objectives to assure supply chains for critical minerals necessary for contemporary industries.
Secure access to these minerals is crucial for facilitating the nation’s energy transition plans, mitigating import dependency, and bolstering domestic manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, they added.
The review meeting also addressed the availability of rare earth elements, with sources noting that the discussions were quite productive.
Additionally, the prime minister assessed the performance of the ₹1,500-crore incentive scheme, which the Union Cabinet approved last year, sources stated.
This initiative is designed to cultivate recycling capabilities within the country for the extraction and production of critical minerals from secondary sources.
The scheme is expected to establish a recycling capacity of at least 270 kilo tonnes annually, leading to approximately 40 kilo tonnes of yearly critical mineral output, generating about ₹8,000 crore in investment and creating nearly 70,000 jobs, both direct and indirect.
This initiative is part of the National Critical Mineral Mission, aimed at enhancing domestic capacity and ensuring resilience in the critical mineral supply chain.
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The government has endorsed a ₹16,300-crore National Critical Mineral Mission, with a total budget of ₹34,300 crore to be allocated over seven years, targeting self-sufficiency and accelerating India’s transition to green energy.
Critical minerals like copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements are indispensable raw materials needed to energize the burgeoning clean energy technologies.
