Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2675 actions· ✨ 91 recent

On 26 November 2025 the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a Rs 7,280 crore (~USD 800 million) scheme to establish 6,000 MTPA of integrated sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnet (REPM) manufacturing capacity in India. The Ministry of Heavy Industries will allocate capacity to five beneficiaries (up to 1,200 MTPA each) via global competitive bidding. The package combines a Rs 6,450 crore sales-linked incentive (PLI-style, paid on REPM sales over 5 years) with a Rs 750 crore capital subsidy for facility build-out. The scheme runs 7 years from award (2-year gestation + 5-year disbursement) and covers the full value chain from rare-earth oxides through metals, alloys, to finished sintered Nd-Fe-B and SmCo magnets.

On 3 September 2025 the Union Cabinet approved the Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Critical Minerals Recycling (CMRIS), a ₹1,500 crore (~USD 180 million) capex and opex subsidy programme running FY2025-26 to FY2030-31 under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). The scheme provides a 20% capex subsidy on plant and machinery plus 40–60% opex incentives to entities recycling critical minerals from secondary feedstocks — e-waste, lithium-ion battery scrap, and end-of-life vehicle catalytic converters. A Ministry of Mines gazette notification formalising the scheme was issued on 8 September 2025.

Parliament of India passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2025 (Act No. 28 of 2025) — Lok Sabha on 12 August 2025, Rajya Sabha on 19 August 2025, Presidential assent on 21 August 2025, in force 1 September 2025 — amending the parent MMDR Act, 1957. The Act removes the prior 50% cap on captive-mine production eligible for open sale (allowing captive-block holders unrestricted third-party sale after meeting end-use requirements), widens the National Mineral Exploration Trust into the National Mineral Exploration and Development Trust (NMEDT) with mandate extended to mine development, offshore areas, and overseas acquisition operations, raises the NMEDT royalty contribution from 2% to 3%, waives the auction premium for the 24 critical and strategic minerals listed in Part D of the First Schedule (including lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, REE, PGM, beryllium, and antimony), and establishes a statutory authority to register and regulate Mineral Exchanges as electronic commodity-trading platforms for minerals and metals.

On 4 August 2025, IRCON International Limited — a Government of India public-sector enterprise under the Ministry of Railways — launched a tender for the manufacture, supply, transportation and delivery of 60 kg Prime Rail (13M length) of Grade IRS-T-1, valued at INR 97.37 crore (approx. USD 11.7 million). The tender embeds a domestic-content preference under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 (as amended), consistent with the wider batch of India localisation-preference tenders already tracked in this register. GTA records the intervention as announced/implemented on 4 August 2025.

DGFT Notification No. 19/2025-26, issued 17 June 2025 under sections 3 and 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992 and the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, reclassifies all of Customs Tariff Heading (CTH) 2843 — colloidal precious metals, inorganic or organic compounds of precious metals, and amalgams of precious metals, covering gold, silver, platinum, rhodium and palladium forms (ITC-HS codes including 28431010 colloidal gold, 28431020 colloidal silver, 28432100 silver nitrate, 28433000 gold compounds, 28439011 sodium aurous thiosulphate, 28439012 noble-metal solutions, and 28439020 amalgams) — from "Free" to "Restricted" import status. Importers now require DGFT prior authorisation per consignment; the stated purpose is to close a route for importing gold disguised as chemical compounds. Genuine industrial and manufacturing users (electronics, electrical, and specialised chemical industries) remain able to import against an authorisation, so the measure targets bullion arbitrage rather than input-supply continuity. It was issued the same day as, and as a companion measure to, DGFT Notification No. 18/2025-26 (gold-bearing PGM alloys, CTH 7110), filed separately as 2025-06-17-india-dgft-pgm-alloys-import-licensing.

DGFT Notification No. 18/2025-26, issued 17 June 2025 under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act 1992, reclassifies alloys of palladium, rhodium, and iridium containing more than 1% gold by weight (ITC-HS codes 71102100, 71102900, 71103100, 71103900, 71104100, 71104900) from "Free" to "Restricted" import status, requiring DGFT prior authorisation per consignment. Unwrought or powder-form palladium, rhodium, and iridium below the 1% gold threshold remain freely importable. The measure extends an earlier platinum-alloy restriction (Notification No. 60/2024-25, 5 March 2025) to the full Customs Tariff Heading 7110 at the 4-digit level, closing a route for importing gold in disguised alloy form.