2012 Govt Paper Foresaw China Rare Earths Crisis

As Indian manufacturers are scrambling to deal with supply-chain disruptions caused by China's restrictive policies on the export of rare earth metals, in many of which it has a near monopoly, experts are pointing to an early warning of this — in a 2012 strategy paper prepared by a steering committee headed by the then mines secretary Vishwapati Trivedi after a similar crisis caused after Beijing restricted supplies of the critical materials that are needed in the auto, space and clean energy industries.

- Rajeev Jayaswal and Rezaul H Laskar

NEW DELHI:

Back then, they added, India felt the heat of Chinese squeeze and on August 9, 2011, the government set up an 11-member steering committee to develop a strategy paper on status and availability of rare earth elements (REE) and energy critical elements (ECE).

The committee was chaired by the mines secretary and co-chaired by chairman of the Centre for Study of Science Technology (C-STEP). Members included senior officials and experts from the Department of Science & Technology (DST), the Geological Survey of India, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), the Department of Atomic Energy, the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the chairman of India Rare Earth Ltd.