India’s drone industry grows rapidly but faces critical rare-earth magnet dependency

A key vulnerability lies in the reliance on rare earth magnets—essential for high-performance drone motors, which India currently lacks the capacity to produce at scale, industry executives said. With China tightening export controls on these magnets, especially for defence applications, industry executives warn this could become a bottleneck in India’s goal of building a fully self-reliant drone manufacturing ecosystem.

The motors used in drones are made from rare-earth magnets, typically smaller…