India must seize global supply chain disruption as opportunity: Amitabh Kant

Former Niti Aayog CEO and India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Wednesday that while geopolitical instability has fractured global trade, India must capitalize on this "vacuum" to accelerate clean-tech manufacturing and economic growth.

Addressing the Centre for Science and Environment's annual Anil Agarwal Dialogue here, he said India has the potential to dominate sectors like battery manufacturing, electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler production, and other sustainable industries. 

"You have a war going on for over 1,000 days in the heart of Europe. So, the period of stability which was created after World War 2 has come to an end. And you have a breakdown of global supply chains across the world," Kant said. "But whatever is happening, I personally am of the view that this is a huge, huge opportunity for India, because there is a vacuum," he said. 

He said that when Donald Trump exited the Paris Agreement (for the first time in 2016), China stepped up and now controls 80 per cent of the world's critical minerals. A similar vacuum is emerging, and India must take the lead in clean-tech manufacturing, Kant said.

"It's a huge opportunity for India to do battery manufacturing. If you do not do this, we will become a colony importing goods from China and our imports in all these clean tech manufacturing will become huge, much more than what we do in terms of oil," he cautioned.

Kant, along with CSE's Director General Sunita Narain and former deputy chairperson of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, launched the State of Environment - 2025 report.  

Narain said there is both good and bad news as we move ahead in 2025.