Modi-Trump critical minerals pact to spur semiconductor biz

In a significant cooperation that would aid growth of semiconductor technology, India and US have agreed to launch a ‘strategic mineral recovery’ initiative.

This is new US-India programme to recover and process critical minerals including lithium, cobalt and rare earths from heavy industries like aluminum, coal mining and oil and gas, a joint statement after a bilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump and PM Narendra Modi.

This aims at accelerating collaboration in research and development and promote investment across the entire critical mineral value chain, as well as through the Mineral Security Partnership, of which both the United States and India are members.

This will include efforts to deepen cooperation in the exploration, beneficiation and processing as well as recycling technologies of critical minerals.

Modi and Trump underscored the value of deepening ties between the US and Indian scientific research communities, announcing a new partnership through an MoU between the US National Science Foundation and the Indian Anusandhan National Research Foundation in researching critical and emerging technologies.

The MoU will serve as a general framework of cooperation between both participants to facilitate discussions and to chart out more specific programmes of collaboration on critical and emerging technologies. This can include opening up funding opportunities for collaborative proposals between Indian and US researchers and joint peer-review of research projects.