♤ France continues to be a major supplier of components and equipment for the Indian space programme.

♤ During the visit of President Hollande to India in January 2016, ISRO and CNES signed an Implementing Arrangement (IA) for the joint development of a thermal infrared satellite mission; payload of French Argos-IV instrument on India’s Oceansat-3 satellite and a Letter of Intent for cooperation in planetary exploration.

♤ The jointly developed MeghaTropiques satellite Mission was launched in 2011. It is an Indo-French Joint Satellite Mission for studying the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics. The main objective of this mission is to understand the life cycle of convective systems that influence the tropical weather and climate and their role in associated energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in tropical regions.

♤ A joint Ka-band propagation experiment is also under implementation.

♤ During the Asia Pacific Remote Sensing Symposium held in New Delhi, CNES and ISRO jointly organized a reception of heads of space agencies on 3 April 2016. The meeting attended by 60 countries came up with a “New Delhi Declaration” which identifies various international satellites contributing as space segment for monitoring climate change.

3.6.1. Civil Nuclear Cooperation

♤ A landmark agreement on civil nuclear cooperation was signed between India and France

on 30 September 2008 during the visit of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to France.

♤ Subsequently, during the visit of President Nicolas Sarkozy to India in December 2010, the General Framework Agreement and the Early Works Agreement between NPCIL and M/s AREVA for the implementation of EPR for the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP) were signed. The power plant will have six reactors with a capacity of 1,650 MW each.

♤ During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to France in April 2015, M/s L&T and M/s AREVA signed an MoU to maximize localisation for manufacturing of critical and large forgings involved in EPR technology for JNPP (including Reactor Pressure Vessel) and M/s AREVA and NPCIL signed a pre-engineering agreement.

♤ Following M/s AREVA’s restructuring, French utility EDF has now been designated as the

lead agency from the French side for negotiations and implementation of the JNPP.

♤ During the 2018 visit of the French president India and France signed an agreement to expedite the Jaitapur nuclear power. NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation) and EDF France have signed an industrial way forward agreement. This indicates that negotiations between entities of France and the Indian government would conclude by 2018-end and construction can begin.

♤ Once installed, the Jaitapur project will be the largest nuclear power plant in the world, with a collective capacity of 9,900 MW.