‘Rare’ threat

With reference to the article, ‘Rare earth minerals as China’s (Trump) card’ (May 5), China’s recent curbs on rare earth exports to the US mark a sharp escalation in economic coercion, leveraging its dominance in critical minerals vital for defence, semiconductors, and clean energy. This mirrors past tactics, like its 2010 restrictions on Japan, and disrupts key US industries, prompting a search for alternative sources.

In response, Washington has signed a strategic minerals deal with Ukraine, granting access to its vast resources while supporting Kyiv’s reconstruction and maintaining military aid.

Amid these shifts, India must accelerate rare earth extraction and processing to cut dependency on China as rare earths are critical for advanced military and electronic systems.

Strategic partnerships with Japan, Australia, and the US can bolster supply chain resilience.

Global realignments demand swift policy shifts from India to ensure long-term economic and strategic security.

Amarjeet Kumar

Hazaribagh (Jharkhand)

Micro compulsions

This refers to the Editorial ‘Micro realities’ (May 5). Given the key position, micro-credit is occupying in the economy in promoting financial literacy and inclusion, enacting stringent laws to prevent coercive recovery measures will adversely affect credit and economic growth.

The regulated entities and self-regulated organisations are governed by the Fair Practices Code of 2015 and the Regulatory Framework for Microfinance Finance Loans.

They are bound to comply with the regulations, and accordingly, they’ll have to refrain from adopting unfair practices for recovery of dues.

MFIs indulging in dodgy lending pratices need to be brought to book, to prevent exploitation of poor borrowers.

Rather than enacting and enforcing laws on the entire microfinance sector, the Tamil Nadu government need to be particular about curtailing the coercive practices being followed by a few lenders to ensure a smooth, uninterrupted flow of micro credit to the needy.

Otherwise, it will adversely impact the growth of microfinance and financial inclusion.

VSK Pillai

Changanacherry (Kerala)

Tepid private investment

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the first-ever forward-looking survey on private sector CAPEX investment intentions. The survey whose primary objective is to estimate the capex trends of private corporate sector enterprises for the past five years has clearly underscored the existing notion that private sector capex has not grown enough.

However, given the fact that the Modi government is trying to incentivise private sector capex, as it believes in the key role played by the private sector investment in economic growth, the survey will help policy makers and corporations in making better choices.

M Jeyaram

Sholavandan (Tamil Nadu)

Published on May 5, 2025