NEW DELHI, October 20 — The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of the ₹15,000 Crore National Critical Minerals Mission (NCMM) on Monday, creating a sovereign institutional vehicle to secure domestic and international supply chains for clean-tech raw materials.
The mission framework is structured around dual objectives: financing deep-seated domestic exploratory drilling for 24 designated critical and strategic minerals across Peninsular India and capitalizing state-owned joint venture Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) to acquire operational equity in lithium, cobalt, and nickel assets in Argentina, Chile, and Australia. The corpus also provides concessional lines of credit to domestic private consortia for setting up mineral refining and value-addition smelters.
Government officials highlighted that securing critical raw materials is vital to scaling indigenous electric vehicle battery giga-factories, semiconductor fabrication units, and defence electronics, insulating domestic industries against weaponized global supply disruptions.
The geopolitical economics of the global critical minerals transition, India's entry into the US-led Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), the corporate mandate of KABIL, and the MMDR Amendment Act 2023 are indispensable study themes across UPSC GS-II (International Affairs) and GS-III (Economy).