PM Modi highlights critical minerals, Rs 85,000 crore push for offshore resource exploration

New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday highlighted critical minerals, energy security and domestic resource exploration as key pillars of India’s future growth strategy, while outlining target of 100 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity by 2047 and offshore energy exploration.

Addressing the nation on the 80th Independence Day from Red Fort here, PM Modi said the government was working to secure supplies of critical minerals which are essential for advanced technologies.

“A similar discussion is taking place around critical minerals. The entire technology sector is dependent on critical minerals,” the Prime Minister said.

India had launched the National Critical Minerals Mission and announced a Critical Minerals Corridor in the Budget, PM Modi said adding that agreements were being signed with several countries and that nations were increasingly placing their trust in India in the critical minerals sector.

Linking mineral security with emerging technologies, PM Modi said energy demand would rise sharply as the world adopts applications such as artificial intelligence, semiconductor manufacturing and data centres.

“It is now difficult to run the new world without energy,” the Prime Minister said, adding that India would require electricity in very large quantities to support chips, AI and data centres.

Calling energy security the need of the hour, PM Modi said nuclear energy would play a major role in meeting future demand.

He said Parliament’s passage of the SHANTI Act had opened a new pathway for the sector with India targeting 100 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear power capacity by 2047.

He said the government had opened up the area for exploration and was moving ahead with efforts to identify new reserves beneath the sea.

Referring to the Samudra Manthan initiative announced last year, PM Modi said the government had recently decided to allocate Rs 85,000 crore to accelerate the programme.

The government also aims to begin five new nuclear reactors within this decade.

The Prime Minister also criticised past restrictions on offshore resource exploration, saying India had effectively declared 99 per cent of its coastal areas as no-go zones.

The Prime Minister said the country’s piped natural gas network had expanded from 70 cities before 2014 to 700 cities currently.

“Before 2014, piped gas reached barely 20–22 lakh households. Today, work is underway to provide piped gas to nearly 1.75 crore households. Twelve years ago, the country had a solar energy capacity of just 2 gigawatts. Today, we have achieved a capacity of 160 gigawatts,” according to the Prime Minister.

PM Modi also highlighted growth in solar power, saying India’s installed solar energy capacity had increased from 2 GW around 12 years ago to 160 GW today.

–IANS

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