The objective of this project is to build awareness among all policy stakeholders for a strategy to secure critical raw minerals (CRMs) to support the country’s clean energy manufacturing ambitions and to support initial actions for the creation of a National CRM mission which includes inputs from government, academia and industry.
Critical minerals are the cornerstone for the shift towards green technologies. For instance, electric vehicles require six times more minerals when compared to a traditional combustion engine (IEA, 2021). Given their role in transitioning towards a low-carbon economy, the global consumption of critical minerals has risen sharply since 2010 and is further anticipated to increase in the future. This rising demand for critical minerals has thus resulted in newer vulnerabilities across supply chains, and the resiliency of said supply chains is now a necessary ask.
Having a strong and visionary policy is therefore the first step towards developing resilient critical mineral supply chains in the country. The proposed study would understand numerous nuances essential to decreasing critical mineral vulnerabilities. Our study, in particular, would focus on the downstream management (especially, circular economy policies), international markets, value chains, ESG and environmental and social concerns associated with critical mineral extraction.
