India, Feb. 19 -- The Union government is preparing a confidential fast-track framework to compress approvals and crowd in private capital for critical minerals, even as it scales up publicly funded exploration and deepens talks with partners such as Canada, top officials and industry executives said on February 19.

At a critical minerals conference organised by FICCI, G Kishan Reddy, union minister of mines and coal, said the Centre has moved to de-risk early-stage exploration by providing 100 per cent government funding to 41 notified private exploration agencies through the National Mineral Exploration Trust (NMET). "For the first time, 41 private agencies have been given full funding to undertake exploration. We are also supporting s...