It hasn’t been long since Lithium reserves in unimaginable quantities were discovered in Jammu and Kashmir. Once it was discovered there was a sense of inevitable happiness in the air as a thousand uses if not less could be thought of where it could be used. However, one of the best uses that it can be put to is making India the number 1 EV player as J&K’s recently found Lithium Reserve can help India become the Number One EV Manufacturer says Nitin Gadkari.
Road Transport and Highway Minister, Nitin Gadkari said that the 5.9 million ton reserve of Lithium found in J&K which was unearthed by GSI could help India become the number one EV manufacturer.
He attended an event organized by CII where he reiterated the need to encourage public transport and mentioned how electric buses are going to be at the center of this future.
Nitin Gadkari said, “Every year, we (India) import 1,200 tonnes of lithium. Now, in Jammu and Kashmir, we got lithium. (If) we can use this lithium-ion, we will be the number one automobile manufacturing country in the world.”
While J&K mining secretary, Amit Sharma shared, “Lithium falls in the critical resource category, which was not earlier available in India and we were dependent on its 100% import. The G3 (advanced) study of the GSI shows the presence of best quality lithium in abundant quantity in the foothills of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at Salal village (Reasi).”
Lithium is a key element in the manufacturing of batteries for EVs. As per the minister Indian automobile industry currently is worth 7.5 lakh crores and is also handsomely contributing to GST revenue.
And just recently India beat Japan to become the third-largest automobile market globally and only the US and China are ahead of us now. Also, lithium will have another use in the manufacturing of solar panels which is again something that we need.
J&K’s recently found Lithium Reserve can help India become the Number One EV Manufacturer says Nitin Gadkari but he emphasized that good infrastructure would be needed for the development of any country as he shared, “With our innovative approach, we can develop the backward area, increase the growth and at the same time create employment potential.”
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He also appealed to industry leaders to invest in vehicle scrapping while also stressing the need to reduce India’s logistics cost from 16% of GDP to a single-digit figure by 2024. The minister also informed Parliament this month that EV charging stations are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
He mentioned that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) said there were vulnerabilities in certain products and applications which are both related to EV charging stations. An alert has been issued for the same while remedial measures to curb cyber attacks have also been mentioned.
Source: The Times of India