In Focus | India’s Rare Earth strategy: Digging beneath the Budget announcements

Rare earth elements (REEs), a group of 17 minerals, have become central to global industry and geopolitics. They power electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, semiconductors, consumer electronics and advanced defence systems. While moderately abundant, they are difficult and expensive to extract and process.

China has built overwhelming dominance in this sector, controlling nearly 90% of global processing and about 70% of production, despite holding only around 30% of global reserves. In 2025, China imposed a series of export restrictions on these elements, disrupting supply chains worldwide. Since then, supply restrictions have eased since then.

For India, the vulnerability was stark. Despite holding around 8% of global reserves, the country produces less than 1% of global output and imports to mee its requirements.

In a bod to increase domestic capacity, the government launched the ₹34,300-crore National Critical Mineral Mission in January last year, and followed up in the Union Budget this year. In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the government’s plans to set up dedicated rare earth corridors in Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and manufacturing of Rare Earth Permanent Magnets.

Can meaningfully reduce India’s dependence on imports, strengthen strategic industries, and position the country as a serious player in global advanced-material supply chains?

Guest: Shobhankita Reddy, Research analyst for the High Tech Geopolitics Programme, Takshashila Institute

Host: Nivedita Varadarajan

Producer: Shiksha Jural

For more episodes of In Focus: