{"id":49949,"date":"2025-07-31T21:07:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T15:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=49949"},"modified":"2025-07-31T21:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T15:37:22","slug":"china-rare-earths-india-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/31-07-2025\/china-rare-earths-india-response","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s Clampdown on Rare Earths Has Prompted India to Explore Options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Science and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>China&#8217;s suspension of rare earth magnet exports to India since April 2025 has disrupted key sectors like EVs, electronics, and drones, highlighting India&#8217;s heavy reliance on Chinese supplies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Rare Earth Magnets?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rare earth magnets are powerful permanent magnets made using rare earth elements, including <strong>17<\/strong> different elements from the periodic table.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The two main types are <strong>Neodymium (Nd-Fe-B) <\/strong>and <strong>Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) magnets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Despite the name, rare earth elements are not geologically rare but are <strong>difficult to extract economically<\/strong> due to their dispersed occurrence and the environmental cost of mining.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"eff4ef\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"412\" height=\"314\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-31-204847.png\" alt=\"What are Rare Earth Magnets?\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-49951\" style=\"--dominant-color: #eff4ef; width:422px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-31-204847.png 412w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-31-204847-300x229.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Availability of Rare Earth magnets<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>China controls over <strong>85% <\/strong>of global rare earth magnet production, and dominates the supply chain from mining to refining to magnet manufacturing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India,<\/strong> despite having rare earth reserves (especially in<strong> monazite sands in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha<\/strong>), lacks;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Advanced refining capabilities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Downstream magnet manufacturing industry<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>R&amp;D and private sector participation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Immediate Impact on India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Electric Vehicles:<\/strong> Bajaj Auto halved electric scooter production in July 2025 and may close its EV plant if the crisis persists.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Electronics: <\/strong>Apple was forced to shut down its AirPods assembly line in Telangana for two weeks due to magnet shortages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Automobile Industry:<\/strong> The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has petitioned the government to cut import duty on electric motors to mitigate rising costs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cost Pressure: <\/strong>With no magnets, companies are forced to import fully assembled electric motors from China, increasing production costs significantly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India\u2019s Response\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Indian government has earmarked \u20b918,000 crore under the <strong>National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM)<\/strong> for a seven-year period (<strong>2024-25 to 2030-31<\/strong>) to enhance domestic production of strategic minerals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> Geological Survey of India (GSI)<\/strong> is exploring over 100 rare earth projects, although commercial mining may begin only after three years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Short-Term Measures: <\/strong>To mitigate the current crisis, the government should reduce customs duties on fully assembled electric motors to control rising production costs in the EV sector.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India must secure alternative supplies from countries like Japan, Uzbekistan, and Australia through trade negotiations.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Medium to Long-Term Measures: <\/strong>India should develop a <strong>strategic reserve of critical rare earth elements<\/strong> to safeguard against future supply disruptions.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India must pursue technology collaborations and <strong>joint ventures <\/strong>with countries rich in rare earths and those advanced in processing technologies, such as Japan, the US, and Australia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/specials\/news\/china-s-clampdown-on-rare-earths-has-prompted-india-to-explore-options-125073100009_1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>BS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">China&#8217;s suspension of rare earth magnet exports to India since April 2025 has disrupted key sectors like EVs, electronics, and drones, highlighting India&#8217;s heavy reliance on Chinese supplies.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What are Rare Earth Magnets?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Rare earth magnets are powerful permanent magnets made using rare earth elements, including 17 different elements from the periodic table.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The two main types are Neodymium (Nd-Fe-B) and Samarium Cobalt (SmCo) magnets.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Despite the name, rare earth elements are not geologically rare but are difficult to extract economically due to their dispersed occurrence and the environmental cost of mining.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/31-07-2025\/china-rare-earths-india-response\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49968,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49949\/revisions\/49968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}