Making in Russia for India’ eyes fert, critical mineral mining JVs

India’s envoy to Moscow has pitched for the ‘Making in Russia for India’ model across sectors, including fertilisers, critical minerals and mining to further propel the expanding bilateral industrial partnership.

Speaking at the India-Russia business dialogue session at the just-concluded St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Indian ambassador Vinay Kumar referred to a “special opportunity” for doing business between the two countries

He cited sectors including mineral resources, critical materials, and fertilisers as areas where new opportunities could be explored and “in which Indian and Russian companies can set up joint ventures in Russia. Such an approach would facilitate a captive export market for India”.

It may be pointed out that India and Russia are developing a joint venture urea plant in Russia to secure long-term fertiliser supplies. The plant will produce 2 million tonnes of urea annually, with the entire output dedicated for export to India. Russia has emerged as the biggest fertiliser supplier to India.

Kumar also mentioned that natural resources, manpower, and mobility should be tapped as the countries work toward achieving the $100 billion trade target set by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their annual summit in Moscow last December. The senior diplomat highlighted that in the last few years, the number of Indian workers in Russia has risen to 100,000.

Kumar also suggested that a framework — already in place for boosting bilateral trade — needs to be implemented “with a view to de-risking the supply chain and making it more resilient”. He said companies need to develop new manufacturing sites and create more supply chains to enable them to meet “the demand scale, demand in India, and also in third countries.”

The envoy also cited India’s transformation in the digital landscape, including the unified payment interface, which processes over 18 billion transactions monthly, making it one of the largest real-time payment systems on the planet.