UPSC Express

How will NSG membership help India? 

Clean energy push:

• India is a growing country with massive energy needs.
• It has set for itself an ambitious goal of sourcing 40% of its power from non-fossil sources and here is where nuclear energy comes into play.
• India will need latest technology and NSG membership will come in handy.
• Though it got a one-time NSG waiver in 2008, the country needs constant access to global markets and a stable trading framework.
• Being a member of the NSG will also mean that India will have far greater access to uranium than it does currently under its 2008 agreement with the US. For example, Namibia is the fourth-largest producer of uranium and it agreed to sell the nuclear fuel to India in 2009.
• However, that hasn’t happened, as Namibia has since cited a 2009 African version of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Pelindaba Treaty, which essentially controls the supply of uranium from Africa to the rest of the world.
• If India joins the NSG, such reservations from Namibia are expected to melt away.

It helps domestic firms:

• A place on the nuclear trading table will help Indian companies such as the Walchandnar Industries Limited (WIL) and L&T to expand business.
• India has a robust indigenous nuclear industry that worked mostly in isolation as international sanctions were slapped every time a nuclear test was conducted.
• An NSG membership will make these companies comply with international norms and make it easier for them to ply their trade abroad.

Make in India:

• New Delhi and Moscow have announced a plan to build reactors in India to sell them to other countries, a move expected to give a push to the Modi government’s Make in India initiative.
• It will not only generate jobs but also help in technology development.
• As an NSG member, India will be better placed to implement the initiative.

End of the nuclear winter:

• One of the objectives of the 2008 nuclear deal was that the US would help India get into export-control regimes such as the NSG, the MTCR (missile technology control regime), Australia Group and Wassenar Arrangement.
• As a member of these groupings, India will have access to defence, space and nuclear technologies.
• The MTCR is done, of the remaining, the NSG is most crucial.
• Admission to the MTCR will open the way for India to buy high-end missile technology and surveillance drones such as Predator.