Bloomberg, September 20th report, India is strengthening its "critical mineral strategic reserve" for defense manufacturing, and accelerating the construction of domestic supply chain systems. On September 20th, Singh, the Secretary of Defense of India (Rajesh Kumar Singh), publicly announced this plan at the "Blueprint Discourse" forum in New Delhi, and stated that this reserve would be used to "meet emergency needs for defense manufacturing." According to the information, the shortage of critical minerals may restrict the production of key military equipment such as missiles, aircraft, and radar in India. To promote the local supply of rare earths, India has recently taken two measures: first, on September 3rd, the Indian cabinet approved an incentive program worth 15 billion rupees (about 1.7 billion US dollars) to better recover critical minerals from batteries and electronic waste. Second, it classified rare earth mining projects as "strategic projects," greatly simplifying government environmental approval processes. Singh said that India has a large amount of critical mineral reserves, and plans to develop and utilize them more efficiently in the future, reducing external dependence. In April 2025, China imposed export controls on certain rare earths, affecting the economic operations of many countries including India. Although China has recently relaxed the restrictions, Western companies are still looking for alternative suppliers.
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