Domestic Capabilities Key to True Self-Reliance, Says Jitendra Singh
Jitendra Singh says self-reliance is meaningless without domestic capability, urging the mining and metals sector to adopt AI and India-specific solutions.
Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said on Thursday that genuine self-reliance is impossible without strong domestic capabilities, cautioning that dependence on other nations makes the idea of self-sufficiency hollow.
Speaking at the third FICCI Conference on Digitalization, AI, Automation and Technology Integration in Mining and Metals, he said the sector is under structural strain from falling ore grades, deeper deposits, rising energy costs, geopolitical concentration in critical mineral supply chains and decarbonisation obligations.
"I think it's important to have domestic capabilities if you have to reduce your reliance on others. Self-reliance can only happen when you are not dependent on others. Otherwise it's just a self-deceptive thought," he said.
The minister said the industry needs in-house strengths in separation, purification, refining, magnet manufacturing and recycling. Citing the reuse of steel slag in road construction, he argued that the very idea of industrial waste is now outdated, since byproducts are being actively put to use.
Technology, he said, can act as a strategic enabler — whether through digital tools that offer visibility, protection, coordination and automation, or through process technologies that reshape physical production systems.
On artificial intelligence, Singh said it is a general-purpose operational tool rather than an asset exclusive to mining and metals, and that its results depend on human judgement. "AI is more of a tool which is applicable everywhere. It's something that you have to do in the times to come. It's no longer a choice," he said, adding that what matters more is how intelligently AI is handled. He described human-led artificial intelligence as a means to a process, not the process itself.
Drawing a contrast with earlier decades when India trailed global industrial shifts by years, the minister said the country is now an early adopter in frontier fields such as quantum technology, space exploration and biotechnology. He pointed to government measures backing the private sector, including a Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation fund set up to speed up industry partnerships.
Singh urged industry leaders to build solutions suited to Indian operating conditions instead of depending on external datasets. "Indian data for Indian solutions. Indian treatment for Indian diseases which also has started happening now of late in the last 10 years or so. And I think the same is applicable also in this sector," he said.
He noted that technology or data developed in a European country may not suit India, while solutions developed in India could find use in many other countries given the country's subcontinental scale. Such India-rooted solutions, he said, can serve global needs in the spirit of Vishwa Bandhu Bharat.