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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Dr R Chidamabaram, principal scientific advisor to the government, on Thursday asserted that the impact of US sanctions on India's nuclear technology and missile development was minimal, crediting the country's self-reliance for it.
Addressing his maiden press conference after taking over office from Dr A P S Abdul Kalam, Dr Chidambaram said, "The impact of US sanctions has not been very significant."
Answering a question on the status of India's hydrogen bomb, he pointed out that the matter had been responded by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee following the Pokharan II explosions, wherein he underscored that among the five devices exploded there was a thermonuclear one.
When asked about the American scepticism about the results of the Pokharan nuclear tests, particularly the data about the thermonuclear device, Dr Chidambaram said, "All Americans did not disagree from the scientific data from the Pokharan II explosions."
Dr Chidambaram, however, did not dwell on the country's nuclear or missile development programmes saying that they were being looked after by the department of atomic energy and Defence Research and Development Organisation.
In a significant reply to a question on whether the Taleban in Afghanistan possessed nuclear weapons, Dr Chidamabaram said, "Development of nuclear weapons is not an easy task. India has a tremendous infrastructure capability to design (a nuclear weapon). Such ability is with nation states."
He said there were no problems in India's (nuclear weapons-related) command and control system and removed any doubts about the possession of a credible minimum nuclear deterrent.
The nuclear scientist expressed concern that the country was not getting the desired level of scientific talent at the school 10+2 level.
He said, "Those talented in the scientific field, especially physics, should be given a guaranteed career in order to attract them to the government."
The government was thinking on these lines, he added.
Asked about India's plan to launch man on the moon, he said, "I think we can afford the programme."
He added that the government's programme in this context was not a 'stand-alone programme' but the launch technology would help in the other scientific areas also.
To another related question, he said, "India is too big a country not to be present in any field of science and technology."
He did not agree that the country's nuclear power production was going down and asserted that by the year 2020, India would be producing 20000 MW of atomic energy.
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