It is good news that India and US have reached an agreement on contentious 123 text. What is worth waiting for is how much US has agreed to oft stated Indian demands on matters of reprocessing right on spent fuel and on the continuous supply of fuel, in case India goes ahead with another explosion either for refinement of existing weapon stockpile or development of new weapons. Let us not forget that India has not yet reached the level of technical capability where it can calculate weapon yields purely on basis of high speed simulation, we still do not have fast enough supercomputers. It remains to be seen how long a leash US is willing to lend India in its attempt to counter Chinese factor. On other side, India is known for succumbing on negotiation tables. Let us therefore not call it a breakthrough yet. It has to first clear both Indian and US legislatures and then the text of the deal would be made public. It is only then that we may actually comment of the substance of the deal. Till such time, we can only hope Indian negotiators have not tilted much from July 18 statement.
