Indian refiners capitalized on global supply crunches caused by West Asian conflicts, drone strikes on Russian facilities, and Asian refinery outages, pushing India’s diesel exports to a 12-month high of 2.50 million tonnes (620,000 barrels per day) in September. Private refiners like Reliance Industries Limited leveraged dual-refinery capabilities and high diesel crack spreads to meet acute shortages across Europe, Africa, and the US West Coast. In the domestic mining policy arena, the Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA) urged the government to classify muscovite mica as a strategic critical mineral and impose a $1,500 per tonne minimum export price along with a 30% export duty to curb unrefined exports to China, which currently imports 57-80% of India’s raw mica for low-cost processing. Concurrently, state-owned Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) announced an investment of ₹6,000 crore across Kerala and Tamil Nadu, including ₹4,000 crore for a steel block fabrication facility at Vallarpadam in Kochi and ₹2,000 crore for shipbuilding and repair units at VO Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi. CSL’s order book currently stands at ₹22,300 crore, bolstered by foreign vessel contracts and its L1 status for five Next Generation Survey Vessels worth ₹5,000 crore for the Indian Navy.