Why Russia scores in India’s nuclear market

While the American companies carry on to harbour anxieties about India’s nuclear liability regime, Russia has no such issues, generous Moscow a distinctive edge over other competitors in the world’s fastest growing civil nuclear market. The information of the discovery of what is being hailed as the world’s largest uranium drop in India has prompted conflicting comments from experts. The deposits in Andhra Pradesh are expected to contain 49,000 tonnes of uranium. Indian scientists, however, believe that the measure of uranium at Tummalapalle may triple to 150,000 tonnes, which will make it world's major uranium producing mine.

The new discovery is set to decrease India’s dependence on foreign suppliers of the yellow metal. Interestingly, the disclosure of the mammoth uranium deposits coincided through US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to India in July through which issues relating to the India-US civil nuclear deal figured prominently in discussions among the two sides.

In 2008 the George Bush Administration signed a deal so as to allowed the sale of reactors and nuclear fuel to India despite New Delhi having nuclear weapons and not have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The American advocates of the agreement counter the arguments of the powerful anti-nuclear lobby through pointing out that the deal would bring billions of dollars to American business and make thousands of jobs. However, the deal has become increasingly complicated unpaid to a host of factors.