Critical minerals race: India looks to UK, EU for supply chains

New Delhi: India is in talks with countries including the UK and the European Union to develop partnerships for processing and developing critical minerals as per requirements, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said Wednesday.

Speaking at the 66th annual session of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India, Goyal said India and the US were working together under the critical minerals partnership and the Pax Silica initiative to help like-minded, democratic and well-meaning countries build resilient supply chains and prevent any single geography from weaponising trade.

"We are talking to some countries with whom we will be having collaborations and partnerships to promote critical minerals being processed and developed for our requirements," Goyal said.


He said trade deals with the Gulf Cooperation Council and Israel will be finalised once conditions in the region improve. New Delhi is also exploring such pacts "to get more access to critical minerals" and ensure "resilient supply chains".

The minister also asked component makers to convert their local businesses into global businesses.

At the same event, UK trade commissioner for South Asia Harjinder Kang said India-UK relations are "deeper than ever before", highlighting growing cooperation between the two countries. He said the India-UK trade deal will deepen supply chains and enable joint ventures and partnerships, with automotive component manufacturers gaining tariff-free access to each other's markets.

'Strong Demand for Workers'

Goyal said that critics were trying to find shortcomings in the growth figures by asking where the jobs were.

Demand for workers was strong, particularly in the textile sector, he said, citing requests from industry in Tiruppur for more workers. "Send me 100,000 people in Tiruppur, we will provide them a job," he said.

BIS exemption

The government is working on a regulation to exempt high-tech sector companies from mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards certification for equipment and components needed to set up manufacturing facilities in India, Goyal said.