Dr Rajiv Nayan is Senior Research Associate at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Click here for detailed profile.
The rising economic and political profile of India is making it to search for a new pattern of interaction with global forces. India's unique relationship with export controls is passing through a new and positive phase. In recent years, India is trying to integrate itself fast with global best practices for export controls. However, it is facing roadblocks in its integration with the existing system.
2011 began on a sombre note for arms control, nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament with Pakistan once again blocking negotiations for a FMCT
The international community inside and outside the Conference of Disarmament is underscoring the need for concluding a fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT). The Indian government, for a long period, has been sponsoring the idea. Notwithstanding the international stagnation, the issue has been instigating periodic debate in India on the Indian approach. The periodic revival of the issue requires that India revisit its policy on fissile material production as well as its approach towards a possible FMCT.
India’s growing biotechnology industry is a subject of discussions all over the world. There are several Indian companies and laboratories which have come up against heavy odds and are known as world class. In the coming years, the Indian biotech industry is going to become very active in the world market. Its top companies are allocating substantial resources in the Research & Development sector.
The joint statement on nuclear issues reflects the combined endeavour of the two countries to find a new common ground, though the final outcome reflects the struggle of the traditional contending approaches of India and the United States.
The removal of some organisations from the Entity List has merely removed a layer of controls and there is no guarantee that all dual-use curbs on India would go.
Nuclear energy is undergoing a global renaissance. While nuclear energy has been contributing between 14 and 16 per cent of the total electricity in the world in recent years, most of the countries that are operating nuclear power reactors are expanding and/or reviving their nuclear energy development programmes, including countries such as the US and the UK. At the same time, several new countries and regions, many of which are rich in other energy resources, are also opting for nuclear energy.
India and the United Kingdom, as nuclear weapons states, have much to gain from, and much to contribute to, a strengthened regime for nuclear and radiological security.
Pakistan’s Annual Deception
2011 began on a sombre note for arms control, nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament with Pakistan once again blocking negotiations for a FMCT