TOTAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE INDO-US NUCLEAR DEAL P. S. Deodhar
We as Indians should be proud of our Nuclear Energy Initiatives taken since the 60s. Although India's nuclear energy program today is mired in problems, its beginnings were filled with hope. Many of the fundamental ideas about the role of nuclear energy in India can be traced back to Dr. Homi Bhabha, the architect of India's nuclear establishment, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister. Dr. Bhabha and Pandit Nehru viewed nuclear technology as a way to jump-start the new nation's social and economic development. In August 1948, while in the midst of setting up India's Atomic Energy Commission, Nehru argued that, “if we are to remain abreast in the world as a nation which keeps ahead of things, we must develop atomic energy.” It may be difficult to believe but it is said that in early 60s, US Government had tried to persuade Pandit Nehru to make Atom Bomb with their help but he had turned it down. Atomic Weapons had no place in his scheme of things. But as someone with high scientific temper, he had already given total free hand to Dr. Homi Bhabha to develop Indian’s own Atomic Energy Program. For a developing country, India has since them pursued a uniquely ambitious and far-reaching nuclear technology program. Department of Atomic Energy was formed in 1954 by a Presidential Decree. Today India has developed expertise and facilities covering the entire nuclear fuel cycle, from
