India suggests a major shift in its foreign trade policy, that will discover free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries that can back its 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' mission and deliver its crucial raw materials, critical components, and equipment essential to support manufacturing activities.
As part of the preliminary step in this direction, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Commerce Ministry has suggested arriving into FTAs and mining agreements with resource-rich countries in Latin America and Africa.
In an in-house presentation made by the department on enhancing industrial growth in India, it has said that such intensive FTA arrangements will help the country to boost electric vehicle penetration as countries such as Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Congo, and South Africa are rich in mineral resources, principally lithium, and cobalt. These minerals go into making the batteries that are critical to any EV strategy.
With India considering to shift a third of its mobility on to the electric mode over the subsequent few years, such strategic trade agreements are anticipated to boost domestic manufacturing of batteries and give an impulse to the development of an EV ecosystem in the country.
The DPIIT presentation has also recommended the need for incentivizing consumer purchases of electric vehicles comprising subsidies on pricing, credit support, lower taxation, toll subsidies, etc. It had also called for a phased plan that is worked for the next 10 years to set up charging stations for EVs in the country.
