On questions whether the government had approached the IAEA for talks on the civilian nuclear deal, ElBaradei said that the government would approach the agency when it was ready and he was ready to wait.

Asked whether the government’s talks with the IAEA would go through considering the present political situation and opposition from Left allies, ElBaradei said they “always had a fruitful dialogue with the Government of India”.

He was speaking to mediapersons at the Advanced Centre for Treatment Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai after accepting the donation of the indigenous Bhabhatron II unit to Vietnam.

The Bhabhatron II is a computerized telecobalt unit designed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), for cancer therapy and is being donated to Vietnam under the IAEA’s Programme of Action on Cancer Therapy (PACT) initiative.

ElBaradei, who visited the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) earlier in the day to interact with top officials from the Indian nuclear establishment, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others in New Delhi tomorrow.

ElBaradei said India was a valuable partner in both mandates of the IAEA, namely “the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy and getting rid of nuclear weapons in the world.”

Addressing members of the scientific community at the ACTREC, ElBaradei stressed on the importance of nuclear energy by pointing out that it was not restricted to just electricity generation, but also had its uses in agriculture, bio- technology, health and hotel management.

“India has and always will be a valuable partner for the agency in all nuclear applications,” he said, pointing out that the country was expanding its nuclear programme in electricity generation. India would continue to be a major partner in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and in ensuring a world free of nuclear weapons, he said pointing to the position of the country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on the issue.

ElBaradei stressed on the importance of developing countries to “invest in science and technology,” and pointed out that one could not rely on imported science and technology.

Research and Development (R&D) was profit driven and developing countries needed to invest in science and technology. Unless this was done, the country could not move forward, and ElBaradei said that the results of India’s investment in the sector were evident, with an “improvement in the standard of living” in the last 10 years.

Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, said that the development of Bhabhatron II showed how state of art technology could be built in developing countries.

He pointed to the tendency of comparing completely imported machines to indigenous ones, comparisons that make out imported machines to be superior and indigenous machines as those with “lingering doubts.” Bhabhatron, he said, was an example of the efficiency of indigenous technology.

“What is true of Bhabhatron is true of our (nuclear) reactors,” said Kakodkar.