India canā??t afford to miss the bus of global developments

Aug 31: Speaking at a function in Thane district, Maharashtra, Prime Minister said that world is undergoing a nuclear renaissance. And “we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind these global developments”, said Man Mohan Singh.

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Justifying the rationale behind Indo-US civil nuclear deal he said that India is now too important a country to remain outside the international mainstream in such strategic field as nuclear energy.

Nuclear commerce with other countries can take place only when nuclear suppliers group adapts its guidelines making international co-operation effective. As they have said it in unequivocal terms that co-operation with India can not start until India reaches agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on India-specific safeguards.

PM said that once these steps taken India can start civil nuclear cooperation with all the 45 nations which are members of this group ending decades old isolation in nuclear field and can help us not only in achieving our current target of 20,000 MW of nuclear power generation by the year 2020 but even two times more than the set target.

The move Singh supported as a need of the time to get benefitted from nuclear commerce as it will not only provide access to updated technology but would also give a platform to the scientists of the country for an exchange of ideas and technical knowledge.

PM also pointed out that we can receive nuclear supply from multiple countries and thus not dependent on any single country.

PM also said that the current resources producing energy are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the economy growing at the rate of 9%. He also dwelt upon the environmental concerns the nuclear energy would address along with the financial ones.

Manmohan Singh said that it is a part of the long term strategy of the country.