India and US in talks for collaboration in battery technology, critical minerals

Amid the quest for energy transition and ambitious net zero goals, India and the US are in talks for collaboration in the spaces of battery technologies and critical minerals, Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India. "Batteries and critical minerals are two areas where we are looking forward to good collaboration because in order to secure our energy requirements, we have to move from absolute basics, which means the minerals such as lithium, which are so critical, also need to be tied up for which we have discussions going on at present,” Kapoor said. Speaking at the 20th Indo-US Economic Summit, organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC), Kapoor said, “India has witnessed rapid growth in terms of manufacturing in the electric vehicle space, but there is a need to set up good charging infrastructure in the country.”

“Public charging infrastructure is very essential. We have this plan of covering 22,000 petrol stations with charging infrastructure. In the next 2-3 years, we will have very good charging infrastructure,” he said. Further, with the need to set up charging infrastructure along national highways, he said that the sector would require a lot of investment, he added. Addressing a session on infrastructure, road transport and highways at, he noted that both countries are already collaborating to set up of funds for renewable energy and are also working on payment security mechanisms for electric buses.

“We have a good scope of collaboration even further in terms of getting more investments into the country, partnerships between companies in India and US companies particularly considering the technology play which is happening all over the world,” he said. Throwing light on the government’s focus on improving the road infrastructure in the country, he said that India will have access to expressways in the range of 50 km to 100 km from any part of the country. He said that currently, 25 percent of cargo movement is done through railways, and there is a target to take this to 40 percent.

He also said that given that Indian Railways has turned electric, it will eventually turn green with the complete greening of the power grid. “As far as roads are concerned, the efforts of the government are to have better network of roads,” he said. Given that highways and rural roads have been constructed over the years in the country, Kapoor said that there is a need to ensure that the networks of roads are seamlessly integrated. Kapoor, a 1987 batch IAS officer, was appointed as Adviser to the PM after he retired as Petroleum Secretary in November 2021.