Reliance, Vedanta, Adani join India's drive to cut China rare earth dependence
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📌 Summary:
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Reliance, Vedanta and Adani are among about 10 industrial groups that have expressed interest in developing rare-earth processing facilities, tapping Andhra Pradesh's significant reserves.
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The move is part of New Delhi's drive to cut India's heavy dependence on China for rare-earth minerals.
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Rare earths are critical inputs for EVs, electronics, defence systems and clean-energy technologies; China dominates global processing capacity.
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Building domestic processing addresses a strategic supply-chain vulnerability, especially after global export-control concerns.
🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (manufacturing, critical minerals, supply-chain resilience, economic security) — links industrial policy, strategic autonomy and clean-energy/defence supply chains.
📝 Prelims Facts:
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Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 elements (15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium).
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China controls a dominant share of global rare-earth mining and the bulk of processing/refining.
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Andhra Pradesh holds significant monazite-bearing reserves; IREL (India) Ltd is the state-owned player in rare earths.
🔑 Key Term: Rare Earth Elements — 17 metals essential for magnets, batteries and electronics, whose processing is heavily concentrated in China.
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