Series

The economics of strategic dependence

Where India depends on a single foreign supplier for something it cannot easily replace, and what it costs to build an alternative: critical minerals, battery materials and the inputs that sit behind them.

Part 1
6 Nov 2026

Growth & jobs

India’s mineral processing subsidy should buy supply that works in a disruption

India will subsidise four lithium and nickel processing plants. Their strategic value depends on feedstock diversification, commercial quality and delivery under stress.

Part 2
11 Nov 2026

World

India has borrowed Indonesia’s export ban for a market that works nothing like nickel

Indonesia’s ore ban pulled smelters to its mines because the world needed its nickel. India’s black mass ban has to keep small recyclers collecting for a handful of domestic buyers, and its design should follow that difference.