One of India's largest critical mineral recycler-miners, Attero, hopes for Nirmala Sitharaman to recognise recycling and advanced materials recovery as core industrial infrastructure in the upcoming Union Budget. This would help India's critical mineral industry and invite more investments in the future.
Attero CEO Nitin Gupta stressed, "As India approaches the Union Budget 2026, there is a strong opportunity to firmly position critical minerals, recycling and rare earth elements as strategic enablers of long-term economic and industrial self-reliance."
"Recycling today is not only about sustainability, but it is also about material security," stressed Gupta, "India continues to rely heavily on imports for lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earths that power electric mobility, clean energy, electronics and defence. Building native recycling, refining and recovery capabilities are some practical ways to reduce this dependence and create resilient, domestic supply chains. E-waste, end-of-life batteries and industrial scrap represent a strategic resource base that can be unlocked at scale through technology."
The co-founder of Attero expects the Budget to accelerate this transition "by recognising recycling and advanced materials recovery as core industrial infrastructure, enabling easier access to long-term capital and encouraging Indian deep-tech innovation in automation, robotics and process engineering."
"Targeted fiscal incentives for advanced recycling technologies, rare earth processing and downstream manufacturing will help Indian startups and scale-ups compete globally. With the government’s growing mission-level focus on critical minerals, this budget has the potential to convert intent into impact, strengthening Atmanirbhar Bharat and advancing a truly circular economy," he added.
This came just weeks after the critical minerals recycler announced a Rs 150 crore investment to expand its national recycling and R&D network through five key facilities.
The expansion included new e-waste recycling plants in Pune, Bengaluru and Faridabad, a copper recycling plant at Reengus in Rajasthan, and an R&D Centre of Excellence in Greater Noida.
According to Attero, India generates at least 3.8 million metric tonnes of e-waste every year. A large portion of it moves through informal routes. But, recently, the share of formal processing has been on a steady rise due to stronger EPR enforcement and stricter compliance norms.
The need for the budget to focus on recycling was also echoed by Manikumar Uppala, Co-Founder and Chief of Industrial Engineering of Metastable Materials, who recently shared his thoughts with THE WEEK.
In his opinion piece, Uppala stressed how recycling and recovery of critical minerals from used batteries were strategically important for the country.
While Uppala agreed that recycled materials would not substitute mining in the short term, he underlined how it could cut down India's import dependency, ease price volatility, and improve material efficiency.
"From a budgetary perspective, the recycling sector faces constraints common to other clean technologies, i.e. requiring high upfront costs, uncertain revenue streams tied to volatile commodity prices," he wrote, "When it comes to batteries, India needs to concentrate on the entire supply chain, starting from cells, recycling and refined raw materials for cells."