Editorials & Explained — 21 September 2026
The Missing Measure in India’s Magnet Mission — Why Mapping the Value Chain Matters as Much as Mining
India’s critical-mineral strategy focuses on access to rare earths, but the authors argue that the real vulnerability lies in the intermediate stages of the permanent-magnet value chain — stages that India’s statistical system does not properly observe.
A permanent magnet retains its magnetic field without an external power source. It is the component that converts electricity into motion in electric motors and motion into electricity in generators.
Rare-earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 metals — the 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. They are not geologically rare, but they occur in low concentrations and are chemically similar to one another, which makes their separation costly, technically demanding and polluting.
- Light REEs: neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr) — the main ingredients of the strongest magnets.
- Heavy REEs: dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb) — added in small amounts so that magnets keep their strength at high temperatures, as in EV motors.
- Ferrite (ceramic): iron oxide based; cheap and abundant but relatively weak — used in speakers and household motors.
- Alnico: aluminium–nickel–cobalt; stable at high temperatures but easily demagnetised — used in sensors and instruments.
- Samarium–Cobalt (SmCo): rare-earth magnet with excellent heat and corrosion resistance; costly — used in aerospace and defence.
- Neodymium–Iron–Boron (NdFeB): the strongest commercially available magnet with the highest power-to-weight ratio — used in EV traction motors, wind turbines, electronics, robotics and precision machinery.
The authors open with the parable of blind men describing an elephant, each correct about the part he touches but wrong about the whole. India’s policy on magnets, they argue, risks the same error: mines, imports and factories are each examined separately, but the chain connecting them is not seen.
- The diagnosis: India’s main vulnerability is not a shortage of minerals but the absence of a framework to locate where strategic dependence arises, accumulates and propagates along the value chain.
- The trigger: China’s export controls of April 2025 on several medium and heavy rare earths and related magnet materials exposed weaknesses in global supply chains — and in policymakers’ understanding of them.
- The core claim: the key question is not only whether India has rare-earth deposits, or whether imports from China can be reduced, but what happens between the mine and the finished product.
The Annual Survey of Industries puts India’s domestic permanent-magnet market at about ₹750 crore. Yet trade data show imports worth several times that entire reported market.
- The gap may reflect differences in statistical coverage, industrial classification (magnets embedded inside imported motors and assemblies, for instance) or supply-chain accounting.
- Whatever the cause, policymakers cannot say with confidence where magnets enter the economy or how they move through it — so subsidies and partnerships risk being aimed at the wrong stage.
- What it is: a tool combining engineering data (how a magnet is made, stage by stage) with economic measurement (output, trade, value added, competitiveness) along the whole chain.
- What it would reveal: where Indian capability is globally competitive, where critical gaps remain, and how dependence builds up across stages.
- What it would guide: where to build domestic capacity, where technology partnerships are essential, and where investment gives the highest strategic return.
- Resource base: India holds some of the world’s larger rare-earth reserves, mainly in coastal monazite sands (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh); mining and processing have largely been with the public-sector IREL (India) Ltd.
- National Critical Mineral Mission (2025): covers exploration, mining, processing, recycling and overseas asset acquisition.
- MMDR Amendment Act, 2023: empowered the Centre to auction concessions for listed critical minerals.
- KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Ltd): the joint venture for acquiring critical-mineral assets abroad.
- Production-Linked Incentive schemes in advanced chemistry cells, automobiles and electronics — sectors that are major magnet users.
- Strength of the argument: it shifts the debate from possession of minerals to capability across stages — the same lesson seen in semiconductors, where design, fabrication and packaging are distinct bottlenecks.
- Evidence-based industrial policy: without granular data, incentive schemes risk subsidising assembly while leaving the chokepoint untouched.
- Limits: mapping diagnoses but does not cure; the midstream also requires technology, skilled chemists, environmental management of radioactive thorium-bearing residues from monazite, and long-term offtake assurance against low-cost Chinese supply.
- Institutional question: who would own ITEM — MoSPI, the Ministry of Mines, or a dedicated critical-minerals body — and how would it link with trade (HS) and industrial (NIC) classifications?
- REEs = 15 lanthanides + scandium + yttrium (17 elements).
- NdFeB magnets: neodymium, iron, boron; Dy/Tb added for heat resistance.
- Monazite is the principal rare-earth mineral in India and also contains thorium.
- NCAER — National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.
“Securing critical minerals does not by itself secure technological self-reliance.” Discuss with reference to India’s rare-earth permanent magnet value chain, and suggest how better data could improve industrial policy. 15 marks · 250 words
A Pinch Less — Tamil Nadu’s Campaign to Reduce Salt Intake and Control Hypertension
Tamil Nadu has announced a multi-pronged mission to reduce population salt intake — a move that treats diet as a public health instrument rather than a matter of private choice.
Common salt is sodium chloride; about 40% of it by weight is sodium. Sodium is an essential electrolyte that supports hydration, nerve signalling, muscle function and digestion.
Hypertension is a persistently raised pressure of blood against the artery walls. It usually has no symptoms, which is why it is called a “silent killer”, yet it is a leading risk factor for stroke, heart attack and kidney disease.
- WHO recommendation: less than 5 g of salt a day (about 2 g of sodium) for adults.
- Mechanism: excess salt makes the body retain water → blood volume rises → pressure on arterial walls increases → sustained hypertension.
- Measurement first: a State-wide survey using urine samples — the scientific standard for estimating sodium intake — for the first time.
- Institutional kitchens: gradual salt reduction in the Nutritious Meal Programme, ICDS centres, government hospitals and hostels.
- Salt substitutes: a feasibility study on low-sodium (potassium-enriched) salt.
- Awareness: a campaign on reading food labels, tasting before adding salt and using natural flavour enhancers.
- Clinical follow-up: stronger hypertension screening, counselling and free medicines through Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam (“Medicine at People’s Doorstep”).
- WHO, January 2025: guideline recommending lower-sodium salt substitutes in place of regular salt.
- Rural India trial (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2021): a randomised, double-blind study found that a reduced-sodium, added-potassium substitute lowered systolic blood pressure in hypertensive adults.
- United Kingdom: a campaign led from the mid-2000s by the group now called World Action on Salt, Sugar and Health reportedly cut salt in bread by about 30% through gradual reformulation.
- Habit is learnable: cardiologists quoted in the article note that preference for salty food is acquired, often in childhood, and the palate adapts when salt is reduced step by step.
- Constitutional position: public health is a State subject (Entry 6, List II), which gives States room to lead and experiment.
- Central programmes: the National Programme for Prevention and Control of NCDs and the India Hypertension Control Initiative support screening and standard treatment.
- FSSAI: the “Eat Right India” movement and the “Aaj Se Thoda Kam” message urge less salt, sugar and fat.
- Strengths: salt reduction is among the most cost-effective NCD interventions; starting with measurement and state-run kitchens lets government lead by example where it controls the menu.
- Hidden salt: much Indian salt comes from pickles, papads, snacks and packaged food, so kitchens and awareness alone may not be enough without industry reformulation and clear front-of-pack labels.
- Substitute safety: potassium-enriched salt is not advisable for people with kidney disease or on certain blood-pressure drugs, because of the risk of high potassium; targeting and labelling will matter.
- Iodine balance: salt is India’s main vehicle for iodine; lower intake must be matched with appropriate iodisation so gains against iodine deficiency are not reversed.
- Cultural sensitivity: as the author notes, the programme needs both scientific rigour and respect for food habits to win public acceptance.
Population-level salt reduction is often described as a “best buy” in the control of non-communicable diseases. Critically examine Tamil Nadu’s salt-reduction campaign in this light and suggest what other States can learn from it. 15 marks · 250 words
