Construction major L&T is gearing up to expand its footprint in the global nuclear supply chain, a senior company official has said, while calling for amendments to key legislations on the domestic front to pave the way for the entry of private players and foreign capital necessary for capacity enhancement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump have vowed to move forward with plans to work together to build US-designed nuclear reactors in India. The decision was made during their meeting at the White House, where they also agreed to significantly expand energy cooperation. The move comes after India announced plans to amend its nuclear liability law and the Atomic Energy Act, which had previously been obstacles to the implementation of the US-India civil nuclear deal.
The move by Westinghouse, which is to build six reactors in India under the Indo-US civil nuclear deal inked in 2008, has raised uncertainties over the future of the implementation of the historic pact.
India on Saturday announced plans to amend its nuclear liability law and set up a nuclear energy mission, a move that came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's likely visit to the United States.
Westinghouse Electric Company is set to begin discussions with India's Nuclear Power Corporation to reach an agreement on the deployment of Westinghouse AP1000 (TM) nuclear power plants in India.
'If the BJP detoxifies the nuclear liability law, it will bring economic, environmental and, most of all, strategic benefits.' 'Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that this Budget promise is met soon -- ideally, before Mr Modi heads to his first meeting with Trump 2.0,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The six AP-1000 reactors would be built in Andhra Pradesh.
The contract would give a big boost to India's $150 billion nuclear power programme, and a broader push to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
This would make India the world's second-biggest nuclear energy market after China
These reactors would bring clean energy to India and generate thousands of jobs in the US
Although the Nuclear Liability Law passed by Parliament has left the India-United States nuclear agreement in limbo, both countries at the end of their Strategic Dialogue in Washington pointed to the agreement between Westinghouse and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India as a tangible step toward ultimate implementation of the agreement.
"We believe that India is a very important market for us. There is need for electricity in India, and with the opening up of nuclear trade between the United States and India, we can really help India strengthen its nuclear infrastructure with our technology," Meena Mutyala, the newly appointed vice president and business leader for India at Westinghouse, told rediff.com ahead of her trip to India in January.
Consumer durables retailers and manufacturers may end up bearing the cost of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) tightening on easy personal loans, as their margins are expected to be impacted by higher borrowing costs. During the recently passed festival season, consumer durables companies started offering longer tenure loans, zero down payments, and zero interest on a wider assortment of products than ever before, making the products more affordable. While 18- and 24-month easy monthly instalment (EMI) options were available earlier, companies offered them only on select products; now, they are being extended to a larger section of products.
With Onam and Raksha Bandhan just around the corner, the festival season is ready to kick off in full swing. As people embrace the celebratory spirit, companies anticipate a surge in sales this year. Consumer durables firms are expecting strong growth of 40-50 per cent in the premium segment during the upcoming season. Appliance makers also foresee increased demand for cooling appliances - refrigerators and air conditioners - which were impacted by unseasonal rainfall.
A pact between the NPCIL and Westinghouse to build six power reactors in Andhra Pradesh is unlikely to be signed.
Consumer durable companies will again start to face a supply issue of components as China extends lockdown due to its zero Covid strategy. This will impact the flow of finished products into the Indian market, unlike last year, this impact will be felt post Diwali. While supply chain issues have been a problem since the start of the pandemic, China's zero Covid strategy has also posed another risk for consumer durable companies.
Ahead of his India visit on February 24-25, Trump said that India has not treated his country 'very well' on the trade front and indicated that a 'very big' bilateral deal with New Delhi may not be signed before the American presidential election in November.
The festival season has already begun in the west and south of India with Ganesh Chaturthi and Onam, respectively, and consumer companies are witnessing a pick-up in sales compared to pre-Covid levels. Retailers, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables companies expect their sales to grow in double digits this festival season compared to pre-pandemic times, as there are no curbs on movement now. Adani Wilmar expects sales volume to be higher by 15-20 per cent as rural India has largely witnessed good monsoon rains, and employment has picked up in urban areas.
John Kerry, US Secretary of State, who is here for the 2nd Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, said his country would want its civil nuclear cooperation with India to take shape in setting up of reactors.
'At a time when the entire India-US relationship needs to be defined by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, a fresh look at the liability issue has become urgent,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, former Governor for India at the IAEA.
United States firm Westinghouse Electric and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd on Wednesday signed a preliminary pact for an Early Works Agreement for installation of the first 1,000 MW American nuclear reactor in India under the historic 2008 Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
'New Delhi and Washington are now on the same page, on dealing with growing Chinese assertiveness, across the entire Indo-Pacific region,' notes Ambassador G Parthasarathy, Chancellor, Central University of Jammu.
Power equipment supplier Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd plans five joint ventures in the nuclear sector and locomotive manufacturing. The company has decided to invest Rs 1,000 crore in a castings and forgings joint venture, Chairman and Managing Director K Ravi Kumar said.
Contrary to perception, the cost of nuclear power based on imported fuel and equipment will be "comparable" to that from the conventional power plants, says Shreyans Kumar Jain, chairman and managing director of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India.
The Imagindia Institute, an independent think-tank, on Sunday raised concerns about a major hurdle in US-India co-operation in civil nuclear energy, that may unravel the plans of US nuclear companies and their Indian partners to set up projects in India.
With their landmark 2005 civil nuclear deal still in limbo, India and the United States have established an inter-agency contact group to sort out outstanding liability and technical issues to fast-track its full implementation.
The list of international and national companies in queue to tap the business opportunities arising out of the Indo-US nuclear deal is pretty impressive.
Under a 2010 nuclear liability law, nuclear equipment suppliers are liable for damages from an accident, which companies say is a sharp deviation from international norms
'Many said his visit was very risky. But mercifully, Air Force One has taken off from Delhi without Mr Trump stepping on anybody's toes,' notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The deal would allow Japan to export nuclear technology to India, making it the first non-NPT signatory to have such a deal with Tokyo. It would also cement the bilateral economic and security ties as the two countries warm up to counter an assertive China.
US urges New Delhi to align its nuclear liability law with the international convention
Sean Mehra, born in Amritsar, jointly researched a space travel project with Jeffrey Reitman.
Civil nuclear projects in the country would be subject to Indian laws including on issues of civil liability, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said on Friday dismissing reports of attempts to dilute the liability clause in contracts proposed with United States firms.
Left parties on Wednesday warned the government that it would commit an "illegal act" if it tried to dilute the Civil Nuclear Liability Act or signed any agreement for supply of nuclear reactors during the upcoming United States visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the United States, a controversy has broken out over the nuclear liability law with reports suggesting that an agreement will be signed which may not be in tune with the law.
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