Away from the public glare, obscured by mists of deep science, quite a few interesting developments took place in 2025, which further India’s journey towards atmanirbharta, or self-reliance. Two of them are discussed here.

Rocket engine nozzles have to put up with extremely high temperatures — like 2,000 degrees C. One material that can withstand such high temperature is a rare metal called niobium, which melts (or loses structural integrity) at about 2,468 degrees C. So, it is a refractory metal.

Brazil and Canada have most of the world’s niobium deposits; India has some — estimated at 282 million tonnes, according to a report on rare earths by the think tank Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). Still India imports niobium, in the form of ferroniobium, an alloy used in the steel industry. It imported about $155 million worth of ferroniobium in 2023-24. But there are applications, such as in space and nuclear technology, where pure niobium is needed. There was a need to develop technology and facilities to produce niobium from India’s own deposits, most of which sits in Gujarat. The metal is locked in complex ores, as opposed to neat oxides.

Now, India has set up a niobium thermit production facility (NTPF), under the nuclear fuel complex of the Department of Atomic Energy. Thermit (or thermite) is a metallurgical process that uses aluminium powder to reduce metal oxides to pure metal at high temperatures.

Interestingly, just as niobium stands unperturbed at high temperatures, it is equally cool at cryogenic temperatures. This means it is the metal for ultra-low temperatures, such as in superconducting magnets of devices such as MRI scans. The NTPF makes high ‘residual resistivity ratio’ (high-RRR) niobium, which means extremely pure stuff.

The second science-led atmanirbharta development, too, comes from the field of atomic energy — the Heavy Water Board (HWB).

“HWB has achieved a significant milestone in enrichment of boron-11 of more than 99.8 per cent purity (semiconductor grade) at the Boron Exchange Distillation Facility, HWBF-Talcher,” says a government press release. The enriched product has been converted into purified enriched boric acid for subsequent transformation into enriched boron trifluoride gas.

This is also a big deal, particularly for India’s semiconductor industry.

Boron has two stable isotopes. Boron-10, which has one neutron less than boron-11, is used to absorb the neutrons swishing about in a nuclear reactor, to stop the reactor.

Boron is also used (in the form of boron trifluoride) to dope silicon to make p-type semiconductors. For this application, the presence of boron-10 is a problem because it absorbs neutrons and splits into lithium and helium —impurities in a semiconductor. So, you need boron trifluoride that is made with pure boron-11 and (almost) zero boron-10. The HWB has managed to separate and purify boron-11 — to an exceptionally high level of purity (99.8-plus per cent), good enough for semiconductor-grade applications.

So, from elemental boron, used to make the common boric acid — a powder that is also sprinkled on the carrom board to make the striker glide — HWB can produce two extremely valuable products: boron 10 and boron 11. The former is a fantastic material control rod in a nuclear reactor; the latter is indispensable for the semiconductor industry.

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Published on January 26, 2026