There is, however, a serious fear of the unknown. Such concerns are natural and have been faced by humankind whenever there has been a paradigm shift in things around it. Whether it is in learning to live with fire or advancing from horse carriages to locomotives and automobiles, man has gone through similar dilemmas. But eventually, he has mastered the new technology and accessed its benefits, overcoming the fear of the unknown. In the absence of such foresight and conviction, we could not have made progress. In the case of nuclear energy we are, however, talking on an altogether different scale. Given the population pressure and the need to provide a good quality of life to all, we must evolve ourselves as a society

that can benefit from this high-intensity energy source without the risk of its misuse.

India with its one billion plus aspiring population and one trillion dollar economy with steady 8 per cent plus GNP growth requires enormous amounts of sustained and reliable energy supply. It is estimated that India would need around 7000 TWh of electricity annually and an additional and larger quantum of primary energy to meet requirements of fossil fluid fuel replacement. While accessing this huge energy supply is a major challenge, we are also fully conscious of the environmental impact of such growth in energy use particularly if it takes place in the business-as-usual mode.

In this context, I would like to draw your attention to what our prime minister said at the recent Heiligendamm meeting and I quote, “India’s GHG emissions are among the lowest in per-capita terms. Moreover, being only around 4 per cent of the world’s emissions, action by us will have a marginal effect on overall emissions. Nonetheless, we recognise wholeheartedly our responsibilities as a developing country. We wish to engage constructively and productively with the international community and to add our weight to global efforts to preserve and protect the environment. We are determined that India’s per-capita GHG emissions are not going to exceed those of developed countries even while pursuing policies of development and economic growth. We must work together to find pragmatic, practical solutions, which are for the benefit of entire human kind”.

... contd.