Rajiv Nayan is Senior Research Associate at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Click here for detailed profile.
India’s growing biotechnology industry is a subject of discussions all over the world. There are several Indian companies and laboratories which have come up against heavy odds and are known as world class. In the coming years, the Indian biotech industry is going to become very active in the world market. Its top companies are allocating substantial resources in the Research & Development sector.
The joint statement on nuclear issues reflects the combined endeavour of the two countries to find a new common ground, though the final outcome reflects the struggle of the traditional contending approaches of India and the United States.
The removal of some organisations from the Entity List has merely removed a layer of controls and there is no guarantee that all dual-use curbs on India would go.
Nuclear energy is undergoing a global renaissance. While nuclear energy has been contributing between 14 and 16 per cent of the total electricity in the world in recent years, most of the countries that are operating nuclear power reactors are expanding and/or reviving their nuclear energy development programmes, including countries such as the US and the UK. At the same time, several new countries and regions, many of which are rich in other energy resources, are also opting for nuclear energy.
India and the United Kingdom, as nuclear weapons states, have much to gain from, and much to contribute to, a strengthened regime for nuclear and radiological security.
In different international bodies and in statements by various world leaders, universalisation and a possible revision of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are figuring quite frequently. Certainly, in the emerging context for universalisation, the relationship between India and the NPT may be reviewed. Several relevant options are emerging to define the relationship between India and the NPT. This has put the relationship between India and the NPT in the international limelight.
The failure of the 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference (RevCon) almost signalled doom for the treaty. The NPT, since it came into force, has always travelled a slippery slope encountering various hurdles on the way. Its problem did not end even after it acquired the ‘near universal’ status. With the exception of India, Pakistan and Israel, all countries have joined the treaty, though North Korea withdrew from it and later conducted a couple of nuclear tests.
After eight years of governance by a Republican Administration, the United States elected a Democrat as its president. The Democrat President, Barack Hussein Obama, assumed presidency and appointed several key officials to implement his agenda. Though some believe that democracy forces political parties to evolve a common agenda and towards consensus on several key issues, there are others who see differences between the Republican agenda and those of Democrats.
India-France Nuclear and High Technology Partnership
Instead of quibbling over non-issues like civil nuclear damage liability bill, France should make a determined effort to embrace and support India.