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Podcast: In Focus by The Hindu
Episode: India’s Rare Earth strategy: Digging beneath the Budget announcements
Description: 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...