Modi Bets On Nuclear: Why India Is At The Cusp Of A Power Revolution
There is a clear and determined effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to make nuclear power a central pillar of India's sustainable and secure energy future
India is navigating a complex energy landscape, driven by the twin demands of fuelling rapid economic expansion and meeting ambitious climate goals. In response, the Narendra Modi government is making a significant strategic pivot, doubling down on nuclear power with a clear and bold target: boosting capacity from just under 9 GW today to an impressive 100 GW by 2047. The goal is for this capacity addition to enable India to achieve the net-zero emissions target by 2070, apart from guaranteeing long-term energy independence.
For years, a key bottleneck hindering faster nuclear growth, particularly involving international partners, has been India's distinct liability framework. The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) of 2010, specifically its provision allowing legal claims against equipment suppliers in the event of an incident, created significant hesitation among global nuclear vendors. This perceived risk, diverging from international norms that typically channel liability solely to the plant operator, effectively stalled major collaborations envisioned under pacts like the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, even though they were hailed as landmark breakthroughs.
Recognising this impediment, a crucial shift is now in the works. The Union government is actively considering amendments aimed at capping supplier liability, potentially bringing India's legal regime more in line with global standards. This move, possibly slated for discussion in Parliament's upcoming monsoon session, is widely seen as essential groundwork to unlock the foreign investment and technology needed for the massive planned scale-up. It signals a pragmatic approach designed to make India a more attractive destination for leading nuclear firms.
Beyond legal reforms, a broader opening of the sector seems imminent. There is talk of permitting foreign companies to take equity stakes, potentially up to 49 per cent, in domestic nuclear power projects. Major international players like Westinghouse, GE-Hitachi, France's EDF, and Russia's Rosatom are the kind of partners India hopes to attract more substantially. Concurrently, a significant development is the reported interest from India's own corporate heavyweights. Giants such as Reliance Industries, Tata Power, Adani Group, and Vedanta are exploring potential investments totalling billions, suggesting a new phase where private domestic capital could play a major role alongside state-owned enterprises and foreign partners.
This push is underpinned by a multi-pronged strategic blueprint being championed by the Ministry of Power. Key elements involve not just tweaking the CLNDA but also potentially amending the overarching Atomic Energy Act. This will formally enable broader private and state-sector participation beyond the traditional domain of central public sector undertakings. Understanding the need for public buy-in, efforts are also being planned to enhance awareness campaigns, focusing on the safety and environmental benefits of modern nuclear power. After all, the last thing India wants is for its nuclear ambitions to be stymied by uninformed activists or vested interest groups. Spreading awareness about the benefits of nuclear power among the larger population, therefore, is essential.
On the practical side, the strategy includes clever infrastructure planning, such as exploring the repurposing of land at retired thermal power stations for new nuclear units, which could significantly cut down on land acquisition hurdles, costs and timelines. Streamlining the often complex and lengthy regulatory approval processes is another critical focus area. To make nuclear power economically competitive, financial incentives like tax concessions and favourable long-term financing options are being considered.
Technologically, the approach encourages diversification. While foreign technology and investors are welcome, there is also a strong emphasis on promoting indigenous manufacturing through the 'Make in India' initiative and fostering competitive bidding processes. Securing a reliable and diverse supply of uranium fuel, alongside expanding the domestic vendor base for specialised components, is also vital for ensuring the long-term sustainability and security of the refurbished nuclear programme.
Looking towards next-generation technology, India is now focussing on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). SMRs represent an emerging technology advanced nuclear reactors with a capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, approximately one-third of traditional reactors. Capable of producing substantial low-carbon electricity, they are characterised by their small physical size, modular design for factory assembly and transport, and the use of nuclear fission to generate heat for energy production. SMRs are localised, cost effective and bypass the risk of devastating accidents as they are meant to provide power in scenarios where extensively large facilities are unnecessary or locations lack the infrastructure to accommodate sizable units
Due to their compact size, simplicity, and advanced technology, small modular reactors (SMRs) offer enhanced safety and reduced fuel demands. SMR-based power plants may need less frequent refuelling, occurring every three to seven years, in contrast to the one to two years typical for conventional plants. Certain SMRs are designed to operate for extended periods, even up to 30 years, without requiring refuelling. NTPC, the country's largest power generator, is already reported to be in discussions with potential SMR developers from the US, Russia, and elsewhere, signaling serious intent in this emerging field.
India's deep engagement in international collaborations, exemplified by its significant contributions to the ITER nuclear fusion research project (supplying critical components like the cryostat), further highlights its long-term commitment to staying at the forefront of nuclear science and technology.
top videos
View all
Undoubtedly, challenges persist. Managing public perception around safety, developing robust long-term solutions for nuclear waste management, and ensuring these complex, large-scale projects are executed on time and within budget are all significant hurdles. However, the comprehensive nature of the current push—blending legislative reform, attracting diverse investment, fostering domestic capability, embracing new technologies, and building strategic international partnerships—signals a clear and determined effort by Prime Minister Modi's government to make nuclear power a central pillar of India's sustainable and secure energy future.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
First Published:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
SC alarmed over ‘rampant' child trafficking in Delhi
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Union government to submit within a week a report detailing measures taken to curb what it termed the 'very rampant' crime of child trafficking in the national capital. SC alarmed over 'rampant' child trafficking in Delhi A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, hearing the matter on its own motion, expressed dismay at the scale of the problem and the interstate gangs operating within and beyond Delhi. 'We would like to know from the Union government what steps have been taken to curb this crime… Let this report be filed at the earliest,' the court ordered. The bench, assisted by senior advocate Aparna Bhat, also called for copies of the bail orders by subordinate courts releasing two accused in child trafficking cases in Delhi. 'We want to know the status of investigations into the Delhi case. We have also been informed that two accused… have been released on bail. We would like to examine these bail orders,' the court said. The proceedings followed the court's April 21 direction to police to intensify their hunt for a gang leader known by the single name of 'Pooja' and recover three infants sold to different buyers. At the time, inspector Vishvendra Chaudhary of special staff, Dwarka, informed the bench that the parents of the missing infants may themselves have sold them. The court, describing the case as a 'big challenge' for the investigating team, said the situation was 'going from bad to worse' in child trafficking cases. HT had reported on July 30 about the nexus that brings babies from poor people in villages and tribal areas and sends them to the rich in Delhi. The matter stems from an April 15 judgment in which the apex court, alarmed by the trafficking of newborns from hospitals, ordered trials in such cases to be completed in six months, cancelled bail for 13 accused in an inter-state trafficking racket, and mandated suspension of licences of hospitals from which infants were trafficked. 'When any woman comes to deliver her baby in any hospital, it is the responsibility of the administration of the hospital to protect the newborn infant in all respects,' the court ordered then. In that case, the bench had severely criticised the 'callous' approach of the Allahabad High Court in granting bail to the accused despite the 'serious nature of the crime' and their established modus operandi. It underscored that the liberty of such offenders is 'not in the realm of absolutism' and must yield to the community's need for security. The April 15 ruling also directed all high courts to collect and review data on pending child trafficking trials, and instruct trial courts to finish them within six months. It said the states must act on recommendations of a 2023 National Human Rights Commission-backed study urging that all missing children cases be treated as suspected trafficking until proven otherwise. It had also urged parents to remain 'extremely vigilant and careful'. 'We want to convey a message to one and all, more particularly to parents across the country that they should remain extremely vigilant and careful with their children. A slight carelessness or negligence or laxity on their part may prove to be extremely costly. The pain and agony which parents may have to face when a child dies is different from the pain and agony that parents may have to face when they lose their children to such gangs engaged in trafficking,' the court observed.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
Trump Slaps Tariffs, India Hits Back: From McDonald, Coca-Cola To iPhones, A Nationalist Boycott Storm Brews
New Delhi: A wave of calls to ditch American brands is sweeping across parts of India. From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, household names from the United States are finding themselves at the centre of a boycott campaign, Reuters reported. The push comes as business leaders and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi rally against Washington's steep new trade duties. India's vast consumer base has long been fertile ground for U.S. companies. McDonald's outlets are dotted across the country. Coke and Pepsi dominate beverage shelves in both small-town stores and urban supermarkets. Apple store openings attract long queues. Starbucks offers discounted treats to crowds of loyal customers. WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, has more users in India than anywhere else in the world. Domino's runs more outlets here than in any other country. Now, anger is simmering after former U.S. President Donald Trump slapped a 50% tariff on Indian goods. The decision has unsettled exporters and sparked tension between New Delhi and Washington. While there is no clear sign of sales declines, the rhetoric against American imports is getting louder, both online and on the streets. Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of Wow Skin Science, posted a video on LinkedIn urging shoppers to back Indian farmers and startups. He called for 'Made in India' to become a global obsession and cited South Korea's global reputation for food and beauty products. 'We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we do not own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country,' he said, as cited by the news agency. Rahm Shastry, CEO of DriveU, a service that provides drivers on call, added his voice on LinkedIn. 'India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB like China has,' he wrote. Indian companies already challenge foreign brands at home, particularly in retail and food. Still going global has remained an uphill climb. In technology, though, Indian IT firms such as TCS and Infosys serve clients across continents. Speaking in Bengaluru on Sunday, Prime Minister Modi called for greater self-reliance. 'Indian technology companies make products for the world but now is the time for us to give more priority to India's needs,' he said, without naming any firm. Even as boycotts gathered steam, Tesla opened its second showroom in the country on Monday in New Delhi. The launch drew both Indian commerce ministry officials and U.S. embassy representatives. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch staged rallies nationwide on Sunday. The group urged shoppers to switch to Indian alternatives and circulated a WhatsApp list of domestic brands, from soaps to cold drinks. 'People are now looking at Indian products. It will take some time to fructify. This is a call for nationalism and patriotism,' said group's Co-Convenor Ashwani Mahajan. On social media, the group's 'Boycott foreign food chains' graphics display logos of McDonald's and other international restaurants. In Lucknow, 37-year-old Rajat Gupta sat at a McDonald's on Monday, sipping a cup of coffee worth Rs 49. He brushed off the protests. 'Tariffs are a matter of diplomacy and my McPuff, coffee should not be dragged into it,' the report has quoted him as saying.
The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Nationalism as spectacle
The recent inauguration of the Chenab railway bridge by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is emblematic of India's new politics of imagery. Hailed as the world's highest rail arch, the bridge leaps across a chasm in Jammu and Kashmir, its elegance rendered into nationalist spectacle. The plan to display it on the Independence Day invitation card signals that infrastructural grandeur is the foremost motif of the republic — and the citizen is invited not to traverse or question but to behold and admire it. A society wracked by inequity and developmental deficits celebrates nationhood in the form of engineered titans: the world's tallest statue, the longest railway bridge, the widest expressway. These achievements are feted in lavish state ceremonies, nationalist rhetoric, and media blitzes designed to inspire awe. But how does grandeur rather than inclusion become the idiom of national pride? Symbols of exclusion India's fondness for gigantism is not accidental. The very size of the project is its message. When the Statue of Unity rose from the banks of the Narmada, it wasn't just a work of art or a tribute to a statesman: it was a declaration writ large in stone and steel of a Hindu-first narrative, with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel recast as a symbol of unity against imagined internal foes. The mythos that envelopes such projects smothers questions of distributive justice. Who benefits when governments spend astronomical sums on such initiatives? Whose aspirations do they serve and silence? Every engineering marvel draws on a carefully curated past. In India, the current government's embrace of large-scale building projects is paralleled by its project to rewrite history. The ambition is not just to fill skylines but to repopulate the national imagination with icons drawn solely from a few mythologies. The making of nation states often involves tearing down colonial-era symbols, recasting historical figures, and erecting new ones that embody the prevailing ideology. But what is striking about contemporary India is the scale and ferocity with which these projects have been pursued, and the drive to anchor national belonging in visual monumental forms. The Kashi Vishwanath Corridor is more than a series of temples and walkways, for example: it's a literal and figurative reclamation, in a city perceived to be the civilisational heart of the Hindu polity. Here, engineering prowess is being marshalled to announce who belongs and who doesn't. Of course, nation-building has always produced spectacle. The Eiffel Tower, the Hoover Dam, and the Great Wall have all served to bind citizens to an idea greater than themselves. But in India's nationalism, the spectacle operates with a particular logic: it's a sign of progress but also asserts dominance. The Statue of Unity gleams while local Adivasi communities, displaced from their ancestral lands, watch with little say in the project that now overshadows them. Expressways, while useful, are undertaken with a gusto that often mocks the villages flanking them awaiting clean water and toilets. The new India is not a place where the peripheries are uplifted to the centre but where a singular vision radiates outwards, flattening multitudes in its path. Engineering in particular lends itself seamlessly to this ideological programme because of the language of precision that engineering projects embody. Concrete, steel, and glass can be measured, weighed, and installed. Their timelines, costs, and visual impact can be displayed as evidence of political will and executive competence. In an era in which governance is increasingly judged on optics rather than outcomes, every new temple or monument becomes testament to the regime's 'can do' spirit. This is not empowerment. Even when prosperity is in the offing, the benefits of such projects rarely flow equitably. Mega-dams inundate villages; stadiums rise while informal settlements are razed; and metro lines are built with scant regard for labour conditions or environmental consequences. Government efforts to bore tunnels through the Himalayan frontier — the world's youngest, arguably most fragile mountains — are presented as triumphs of ingenuity and grit, shrinking distances and fortifying borders. Yet the scenes of excavation mask the scarring of ecologically fragile mountainsides, the uprooting of Indigenous communities, and the haste of it all that mocks environmental and social consent. There is little room here for participatory democracy. These impulses are most apparent in the erasure of marginal communities and alternative histories from the landscape of the new nation. Large engineering projects have become instruments of progress and of recalibration, of crafting a physical and symbolic order that must be admired and obeyed. Legal processes are twisted to fast-track construction. Public consultations are perfunctory and often organised long after decisions have been made. This is the grammar of the prevailing nationalism — a style that grants primacy to order, magnitude, and uniformity and disdains the messy business of democracy. Serving communities India's earliest engineering masterworks — stepwells, ancient irrigation systems, and the Mughal gardens — served communities, not just sovereigns. Identity and inclusion need not be strangers to national achievement. Success can also be measured in the lives touched, the voices heard, and the spaces opened to everyone. Yet India's nationalism seems to fear such a reckoning, and no wonder: no monument can command loyalty in perpetuity if those on whom it is built remain strangers to its promise.
