India’s push for rare-earth magnets and supply security

India has announced a Rs 7,280 crore, seven-year production-linked incentive for rare earth permanent magnet (REPM) manufacturing to reduce dependence on imports.
These magnets power EV and hybrid motors, wind turbines, solar inverters, consumer electronics, aerospace and defence systems, and certain semiconductor and battery applications.
The move comes after China tightened rare-earth exports starting in 2025, exposing supply vulnerabilities and prompting faster domestic action.
This PLI is the third major step in recent years, following the 2024–25 auctioning of 34 mineral blocks (including coastal and Andaman deposits) and the January 2025 National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), a Rs 34,300 crore, seven-year programme to build end-to-end capacity from exploration to recycling.
Rare earths - a family of 17 elements like neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium - are moderately abundant but geologically dispersed, making extraction and processing capital- and technology-intensive.
India has monazite-bearing beach sands and reserves of some elements but lacks processing and magnet-manufacturing expertise, and recycling capability remains limited.
Experts say foreign technology partnerships and overseas resource agreements will be essential while domestic capacity scales up, and alternatives such as induction motors pose trade-offs in efficiency, size and control requirements.
Overall, the government’s incentives and international ties aim to close long-term gaps but technology and economics mean results will take years.