Policy reforms initiated for supply of critical minerals in India

Critical minerals are those minerals that are essential for modern technologies, economic development and national security. Resilent acess to critical minerals is required for low carbon technologies in line with India’s COP26(COP26 stands for the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC is a treaty that came into effect in 1994. The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC, and all states that are parties to the convention are represented at the COP.) commitemnts. Critical minerals are distinguished by distinctive chemical and physical properties. Apart from geological processes that determine the physical availability of these minerals there are a host of other factors that influence access to the resources on the ground such as quantity of mineral present, its grade, and the assessment of the optimum methods for mining and processing of ore. Therefore, reliable estimates of the total amount of these minerals that may be available in the Earth’s crust are difficult to ascertain at preliminary level of exploration. This implies building capacity at each value chain stage (mineral exploration, mineral extractions, intermediate processing, manufacturing, and recycling). India is dependent on import for many critical minerals including lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Thrust has been given in National Mineral Policy 2019 towards exploration of energy critical minerals, for which the country is mainly dependent on imports. To boost the critical minerals supply chain in India, a number initiative that the government has taken will be discussed in this paper.