For years, the dark, heavy sands of the Indian coast held a secret that the country wasn’t quite ready to use. While these sands were packed with the minerals needed for modern tech, India kept importing nearly every high-performance magnet it needed. On February 1, 2026, the Union Budget flipped the script. The government announced “Rare Earth Corridors” across Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. This isn’t just a mining project; it’s a full-scale industrial wall designed to ensure that if a mineral is dug up here, it stays here to be refined and manufactured.
The numbers driving this move are staggering. India sits on about 13.15 million tonnes of monazite, which holds roughly 7.23 million tonnes of rare earth oxides. Even with this wealth, we’ve historically produced less than 1% of the global supply. Meanwhile, China currently manages over 90% of the world’s refining. By zeroing in on the four states that hold 89% of India’s monazite, the 2026 Budget targets this gap. Andhra Pradesh is the main engine with 3.78 million tonnes of reserves, followed by Odisha with 3.16 million tonnes.
To turn this vision into a reality, the Centre is backing it with a ₹7,280-crore incentive scheme. The goal is to build a domestic capacity of 6,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) for Rare Earth Permanent Magnets. These are the tiny, powerful parts inside electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, and missile guidance systems. The scheme offers a 30% capital subsidy for new factories, making it much easier for Indian entrepreneurs to compete with global giants who have had a thirty-year head start.
The real-world impact is going to hit home in local economies first. Kerala alone expects its corridor—linking Vizhinjam port to Kochi—to pull in ₹42,000 crore in investment and create 50,000 new jobs. By scrapping the 2.5% basic customs duty on monazite and offering tax breaks for mineral exploration, the government is essentially inviting the world’s best engineers to build the future on Indian shores. It’s a long-term bet that the path to a “Viksit Bharat” doesn’t just run through the cloud, but through the very sand beneath our feet.
