Why is the approval of the National Critical Minerals Mission important for the UPSC exam

Key Takeaways:

1. The ngo volition intensify the exploration of captious minerals wrong the state and successful its offshore areas. It aims to make a fast-track regulatory support process for captious mineral mining projects. It aims to promote Indian nationalist assemblage enterprises and backstage assemblage companies to get captious mineral assets overseas and heighten commercialized with resource-rich countries. It besides proposes improvement of stockpile of captious minerals wrong the country.

2. Under the mission, an further Rs 5,600 crore is allocated to the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET) to concern hazard sum for overseas sourcing and to enactment exploration activities extracurricular India. The mines ministry seeks to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act to alteration the NMET to money the projected activities of the mission.

3. NCMM volition person Rs 1,000 crore from the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) and different R&D schemes, and Rs 2,600 crore successful budgetary support. The mines ministry had projected outer backing for the NCMM done the World Bank’s Resilient and Inclusive Supply-Chain Enhancement (RISE) initiative.

4. As portion of the mission, the authorities besides plans to make four mineral processing parks and hole separate guidelines for the recycling of captious minerals, with a absorption connected streamlining India’s monolithic informal recycling sector. NCMM besides seeks to beforehand Critical Minerals Partnership Agreements with resource-rich countries and to integrate chapters connected captious minerals successful existing bilateral commercialized agreements with countries of interest.

Significance of the Mission

1. The ngo aims to fortify India’s critical minerals worth chain by gathering a technological, regulatory, and fiscal ecosystem to guarantee mineral availability from some home and overseas sources. The ngo is acceptable to boost entree to earthy materials utilized crossed strategical sectors, from cleanable vigor and electronics to defence and agriculture.

2. According to a report, published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) successful 2024, India’s request for captious minerals is expected to much than treble by 2030, portion home mining operations whitethorn instrumentality implicit a decennary to commencement producing.

3. IEEFA’s study examines 5 captious minerals (and their compounds) – cobalt, copper, graphite, lithium and nickel – from the perspectives of import dependency, commercialized dynamics, home availability, and planetary terms fluctuations.

4. The findings amusement that India remains largely import-dependent for these minerals and their compounds, with 100 per cent import reliance for minerals similar lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

5. The study said India depends heavy connected China for synthetic graphite and earthy graphite and it should research practice initiatives with countries similar Mozambique, Madagascar, Brazil and Tanzania which are immoderate of the highest graphite producing countries.

6. India is besides highly import-dependent for copper cathodes and nickel sulphates from conscionable 2 countries – Japan and Belgium. The study suggests India could look astatine the US, the 5th largest shaper of copper successful the world, to diversify its suppliers and heighten proviso security.

7. For minerals similar lithium oxide and nickel oxide, the dependency is debased connected 1 country, but wide imports mostly travel from Russia and China, some countries with imaginable commercialized risks.

8. India has committed to achieving 500 gigawatts (GW) of non-fossil fuel-based electricity installed capableness by 2030. Currently, the country’s renewable vigor installed capableness stands astatine 201 GW, with star vigor accounting for 91 GW. In this regard, the support of the NCMM becomes significant.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Critical Minerals approved by Centre

1. Critical minerals are indispensable for economical improvement and nationalist security, and the deficiency of availability of these minerals oregon the attraction of extraction oregon processing successful a fewer geographical locations could perchance pb to “supply concatenation vulnerabilities and adjacent disruption of supplies”. This is existent for minerals specified arsenic lithium, graphite, cobalt, titanium, and uncommon world elements, which are indispensable for the advancement of galore sectors, including high-tech electronics, telecommunications, transport, and defence.

30 captious minerals identified by the government

2. In 2023, the Centre identified 30 captious minerals, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, tin and copper, which are indispensable for the country’s economical improvement and nationalist security.

(Source: Cabinet approves captious minerals ngo with Rs 16,300 crore outlay, Centre identifies 30 captious minerals, World Bank, India remains highly babelike connected imports of captious minerals, says report)

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