It was quite surprising to read that India has the fifth-largest natural resource for rare earths - about 7 million tons of the total 120 million tons in the world (even the US has only about 1.5 million tons).
A 2016 report informs that rare earths minerals found in India include ilmenite, sillimanite, garnet, zircon, monazite and rutile, collectively called Beach Sand Minerals (BSM). India has almost 35% of the world's total beach sand mineral deposits. Wow, that's a pretty large proportion.
Despite having a rich deposit of beach sand, India is 100% import-dependent for its rare earth supplies. The reason? Most likely because mining these minerabls is restricted to PSUs.
A knee jerk answer would be to get private sector participation in this sector. Perhaps it could help, but are there are other ways?
The other way to leverage and utilize our natural resources and import much less could be through technology transfer from leaders in this field, such as the US. Will the monopoly of the PSUs still prove a deterrent? India's public sector has shown its ability to absorb advanced technologies and translate these into commercial successes in the past, but it might be more a question of speed than capability.
