A depressing read on India’s critical minerals push/ India has auctioned 733 mineral blocks. Only 125 are actually producing. More than 600 mines are stuck in bureaucratic impasse. At a time when the world is racing for critical minerals and China controls the supply chain, the average gap between winning a block and starting production in India is more than seven years. The Centre’s own notes, prepared for the 6th national conference of chief secretaries, list the problems -fragmented land records, disputed land titles, no land banks set aside for compensatory afforestation, too many state cesses and levies, approvals that move from one department to the next, and weak rail cum port links for moving the ore. Mining brings in over ₹1.9 lakh crore a year, and about 90% of it goes to the states. So the states lose the most when a block sits idle, and they are also the ones who can fix most of these bottlenecks: including digitising land records, creating land banks, setting up single-window approvals. Critical minerals are now about energy security and strategic autonomy, not only revenue. A seven-year wait for a lithium or rare earth mine is something India cannot afford. via @anubhutivishnoi for @EconomicTimes