UPSC Prelims 2025 · Question 36 of 100
UPSC Prelims 2025 question on Minerals Security Partnership
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2025
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectIndian Economy
- TopicIndustry
- DifficultyMedium
- TypeStatement
Consider the following statements:
I. India has joined the Minerals Security Partnership as a member.
II. India is a resource-rich country in all the 30 critical minerals that it has identified.
III. The Parliament in 2023 has amended the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowering the Central Government to exclusively auction mining lease and composite license for certain critical minerals.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
Show answer
Answer: C. I and III only
Verdict
Statements I and III are correct → Option (c).
Statement by statement
Statement I – CORRECT: India has become the 14th member of the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) in June 2023. The other member countries are United States, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the European Commission.
Statement II – INCORRECT: India's Ministry of Mines identified a list of 30 critical minerals in November 2022. However, India has not yet proven domestic reserves for all 30 and remains dependent on imports for many such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and vanadium. India is NOT resource-rich in all 30 critical minerals.
Statement III – CORRECT: The MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 has empowered the Central Government to exclusively auction Mining Leases (ML) and Composite Licences (CL) in respect of any 'critical and strategic mineral' specified in Part D of the First Schedule of the MMDR Act.