India needs to be self-reliant in rare earth element production: Prez Murmu

President Droupadi Murmu said on Friday that India should achieve self-reliance in production of rare earth elements, given the current geopolitical situation.

This would help India achieve its target of becoming a developed nation and play an important role in ensuring the security of the country, Murmu said while speaking at the National Geoscience Awards 2024 here.

"Seeing the current geopolitical situation it is very important that India becomes self-reliant in production of rare earth elements," she said.

These elements are not rare because their availability is scarce but the process to identify these elements is very complicated, she said, adding that the development of indigenous technique will help complete this complicated process.

President Murmu said this is the age of artificial intelligence, semiconductior, and clean energy technology.

Rare earth elements are essential in smartphones, electric vehicles (EVs), and renewable energy technologies.

Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are a group of 17 chemically similar metallic elements that are essential for modern technologies, including smartphones, electric vehicles, and wind turbines.

The mines ministry, she said, is committed towards sustainability and innovation. The mining sector is promoting AI machine learning and drone-based survey. The focus is also being laid on recovery of valuable elements from mine tailings.

A lot a damage was caused to people this year due to cloudbursts and landslides in several parts of the country and it is very important to get the information about such natural disaster on time, she said.

"It is my appeal to the geoscientist community to pay more attention on the research of natural calamities like flood, landslide, earthquake, and tsunami," she said.

Murmu also requested geoscientists to develop technologies so that the alert to the common man on these natural calamities can be sent on time.

Instituted in 1966 by the mines ministry, the National Geoscience Awards (known as the National Mineral Awards until 2009) are among the country's oldest and most prestigious honours in the field of geosciences.