Boost for smartphone and electric car industries: India-Russia partnership to break China's monopoly in rare earth minerals

NEW DELHI: India and Russia are working together to mine and extract rare earth minerals, which are essential for electric cars, smartphones and sophisticated missiles. China, which dominates these minerals, imposed restrictions on their export in the context of a tariff war with the United States, which was a setback for India. The situation of having to depend on China will be avoided with the recent discovery of these deposits in India and the development of the technology to extract such minerals by Russia. The technology developed by Russian companies is in the testing phase. Russia has expressed interest in commercialising it in collaboration with India. India will also have access to rare earth minerals available in Russia. It will also pave the way for reducing China's dominance in