India, Dec. 1 -- Last week, the Union Cabinet approved the "Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets" with an outlay of Rs.7,280 crore. The scheme will support several stages of the supply chain, among them the conversion of rare earth oxides to metals, metals to alloys, and alloys to finished magnets. This scheme only shifts the import reliance from Chinese magnets to Chinese rare earth oxides. The missing trick is recovering rare earths from end-of-life electronics. These discarded devices can form an essential pillar of supply security.

China controls approximately 70% of global rare earth mining and nearly 90% of refining capacity. This structural dominance was built through decades of subsidies and a ...