In a significant message to the business lobby in Washington, the Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill.The move will encourage the nuclear power plant manufacturing companies, which have been eyeing the Rs 60,000-crore plus market in India, for the next 5-10 years. According to sources, the government will fix the civil liability at approximately Rs 2,400 crore for the manufacturers.
One of the biggest myths being propagated is that nuclear cooperation with the US is the answer to India's energy crisis, which in any case would not see the light of the day before 2016. Also Indian Parliament and citizens have been kept in dark about the cost of electricity from foreign-built nuclear power reactors.
Pitching for enactment of a law to fix civil damages caused by nuclear accidents, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee said neither the Indian Environmental Protection Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991, nor the Indian Atomic Energy Act had provisions for damages caused due to war or radioactivity.
While the cap on liability is lower than in several other countries, few producers, including those in India, will supply nuclear power equipment without such a bill -- raising the caps is an obvious solution.
The United States has said that India is committed to the Nuclear Liabilities Bill and it was up to the United Progressive Alliance government to figure out how to move forward in the wake of the Opposition's objections to some aspects of the controversial legislation.The stalled bill, whose passage in Parliament is a must, is a crucial step for the full implementation of the historic Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
In the second part of a three-part series, Manoj Kumar and Lydia Powell, in an Observer Research Foundation study, discuss at length the various loopholes in the Nuclear Liability Bill, whose amended version was recently passed by the Lok Sabha.
The Indian government has introduced a bill to overhaul the civil nuclear sector, allowing private participation and establishing a new liability regime. The SHANTI Bill, 2025, aims to repeal existing acts and address industry concerns.
The much-debated Nuclear Liability Bill, crucial for operationalising the India-US civil nuclear deal, would be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on March 15, Minister of State for Atomic Energy Prithviraj Chavan has said.
The one message that the Congress party wants the Prime Minister's Office to take heed of, following the tumultuous first phase of this year's Budget session, is that the PMO should be more helpful in facilitating political management for the party.Despite the government bending over backwards to explain that the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages bill was a mandatory legislation -- no matter which country India wanted to engage with in is unconvinced.
India, on Sunday, categorically ruled out any change in the Nuclear Liability Act as a precursor to United States President Barack Obama's maiden visit to India that begins on November 5.
The operator's liability in the case of an incident is limited to 3,000 crore for reactors with thermal power above 3,600 Megawatt; 1,500 crore for reactors with thermal power between 1,500 Mw and 3,600 Mw; 750 crore for reactors with thermal power between 750 Mw and 1,500 Mw; 300 crore for reactors with thermal power between 150 Mw and 750 Mw; and 100 crore for reactors having thermal power up to 150 Mw, fuel cycle facilities other than spent fuel reprocessing plants and transportation of nuclear materials.
Ending months of wrangling between treasury benches and the opposition, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the civil nuclear liability bill after government dropped the contentious provision of 'intent' in the case of accident adopting a Bharatiya Janata Party amendment, paving the way for nuclear commerce with the world.
Greenpeace has also launched a petition addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which the organisation claims has been signed by over 21,000 people.
Bowing to pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties, government on Friday dropped a controversial addition in the civil nuclear liability bill which the Opposition said diluted the liability of suppliers for accidents caused by their negligence.
India's Civil Nuclear Liability Bill will not have an immediate adverse impact on Indo-Russian cooperation in atomic power generation, but Russian contractors would not like to see safety issues raise their project costs. Director for the Centre of Energy and Security Studies and Editor-in-Chief of the Nuclear Club magazine Anton Khlopkov said the legislation passed by the Indian Parliament "is raising concerns in Russia".
The passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday has not ended the problems of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's meeting with BJP top brass L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday ended on a positive note with both sides reaching a consensus on most issues in the draft bill.The Parliamentary Standing Committee finalised its report on Nuclear Liability Bill. The Compensation cap raised from Rs 500 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.
The Civil Nuclear Liability Bill is likely to come up for consideration in Parliament on Wednesday
The Bill is likely to pave the way for amending two existing legislations -- the Atomic Energy Act 1962, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) told Business Standard that National Security Advisor (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon will meet top leaders of the BJP and the CPI(M) to explain the salient features of the Bill.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, which has held marathon deliberations on the controversial Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, is expected to present its report to Parliament on August 9.
Paving the way for India to have nuclear commerce with the world, Parliament on Monday adopted a nuclear liability bill with the government insisting that the compensation package for victims matches that of the United States and it was still open to accommodate some suggestions.
Former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman P K Iyengar on Wednesday raised a red flag over certain provisions of the nuclear liability bill, including keeping civil courts off limits in case of a nuclear accident.
Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology T Subbirami Reddy on Friday voiced confidence that the report on the nuclear liability bill will be tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, despite differences among members.
The India-US nuclear deal was aimed at ending India's nuclear isolation and nuclear apartheid, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
The government is going all out to get the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill passed in Parliament, even if it means making changes to the
The passing of the nuclear liability bill will be a political and diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a time when he is being seen as getting weaker and his government is drifting on all major national challenges like price rise, Kashmir and Naxalism.
What is in store for the Koodankulam nuclear power plants, asks S P Udayakumar.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties have already indicated opposition to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill that is key to operationalise the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal. The Bill pegs the maximum amount of liability in case of each nuclear accident at Rs 300 crore to be paid by the operator of the nuclear plant.
As key world capitals scrutinise the Nuclear Liability Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, for word on how the new legislation would affect potential civil nuclear agreements with India, a senior Union minister has said that private suppliers could still sign agreements with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India clearly stating that their responsibility ended with the handover of equipment and other material to the operator.
The United Progressive Alliance government says it will table the civil nuclear liability bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, but before that it hopes to resolve the continuing differences with the opposition parties over the wordings of some key aspects of the bill.
Terming the passing of the civil nuclear liability bill by the Parliament as 'flawed', an eminent American expert on South Asian affairs has said the US policy makers and industrial leaders have been taken off guard by this and it threatens to cast a pall over the historic Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
Getting the requisite numbers to pass the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 in the Lok Sabha may be the least of the United Progressive Alliance's problems. Lawyers and legal experts, including those who support the legislation, say there are many instances of poor drafting and anomalies that have the potential to generate more controversy if the Bill is passed in its current form.
Victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, described as one of the world's worst-ever industrial disasters, have filed a Right to Information petition with the prime minister's office in New Delhi.The RTI plea wants to know whether the Central government took into consideration the disaster of gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in 1984 while drafting the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill with the United States.
The uncertainty over the fate of the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill in Parliament has caused a considerable amount of concern to members of the United States-India Business Council, as some of them had lobbied feverishly in the US Congress to get the agreement approved.USIBC President Ron Somers voiced his concerns at an interaction with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, during her six-day visit to the United States
Gopal Krishna makes a case against the nuclear liability bill.
In a scathing indictment of the nuclear liability bill passed by Indian Parliament, Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state in the Bush administration, has warned that if the bill was not amended it could sound the death knell of the historic Indo-US nuclear deal and adversely impact on the envisaged US-India strategic partnership.
Facing stiff opposition over the Nuclear Liability Bill, the government on Friday said it will consult all political parties before tabling the draft legislation in Parliament. "
Ron Somers, president, US-India Business Council, which lobbied to get the US-India nuclear technology deal approved, like the rest of the American business fraternity, is upset by India's recent purchase of nuclear reactors and sophisticated technology and weaponry from Russia.
As a Parliamentary panel races to submit its report on the nuclear liability bill, Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have dug its heels asking the government to clarify whether the draft legislation was India-specific or being enacted to fulfil requirements of international treaties.
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