Union Cabinet to discuss critical mineral processing and storage schemes
The government is expected to consider capital expenditure support for mineral processing and viability gap funding for grid-scale storage systems.
The Union Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, to consider two major schemes, according to a memo seen by The Hindu.
The first scheme involves capital expenditure support to promote critical mineral processing, while the second concerns a viability gap funding (VGF) scheme for the development of grid-scale storage systems.
The memo did not specify the exact contours or the ambit of the mineral processing scheme, though the policy has been under development for some time.
Keshav Chandra, Secretary at the Union Ministry of Mines, previously indicated at a FIMI event in September that the government would institute a scheme for the domestic processing of lithium and nickel.
Former secretary Piyush Goyal had stated in April that the government identified two minerals to initiate the scheme to provide resilience to the electric vehicle battery chain.
The Ministry of Heavy Industries is currently implementing a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to establish 50 GWh of advanced chemistry cell manufacturing capacity, including 10 GWh for grid-scale stationary storage.