The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : "India set for leap in nuclear power generation"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 31, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

"India set for leap in nuclear power generation"

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: : India would see a quantum leap in nuclear power generation, thanks to the India-United States nuclear deal, which would end the post-1998 embargo on the supply of fuel and equipment for the country's civilian nuclear power programme, Editor of The Hindu, N. Ravi, said here on Saturday.

Speaking on the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh's recent visit to the U.S. at a function jointly organised by the Triplicane Cultural Academy and the Kasturi Srinivasan Library here, Mr. Ravi said the deal had been criticised by certain quarters. It had been argued that the decision to separate the military from the civil nuclear programme would cap the military programmes at the present level besides making it expensive. Another argument was that India had to fulfil its obligations straight away while the U.S. President would have to go to Congress to get the Nuclear Non-proliferation Act amended besides convincing other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to amend the rules.

But the joint statement issued by Dr. Singh, and the U.S. President, George Bush, showed there were safeguards against such dangers, Mr. Ravi said adding that since the deal called for reciprocity and a phased implementation, there was no need for India to move ahead of the U.S. in fulfilling its obligations. The basis of the deal was that there should be no discrimination between nuclear weapon states and India.

On the commitment to separate civilian and military nuclear programmes, Mr. Ravi said such a separation was overdue. He called for a greater transparency in that area. The deal had, in fact, ended India's isolation while the U.S. had accepted the reality of India's nuclear programme, which was not going to be rolled back. There were many loose ends such as the need to form a working group to lay down the sequence of steps that each country would have to take.

With India's installed nuclear power capacity remaining at 3310 Mwe against the proclaimed target of 10,000 Mwe for the end of 20th century, Mr. Ravi said the energy capacity was estimated to increase from 20,000 Mwe to 40,000 Mwe in the next 15 years. He highlighted the initiatives which came up during Dr. Singh's visit to harness private sector investment and to promote cooperation in the field of education.

B.S. Raghavan, former IAS officer, said the Indo-U.S. defence framework agreement should have been signed after preparing public opinion in the country. He wanted to know if India subscribed to the U.S. strategies of "pre-emptive strike" and "regime change" to perpetuate democracy. The president of the Academy, G. Narayanaswamy, highlighted the role of the institution in holding discussions on issues of topical importance besides running a 45-year-old library.

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