♤ The civil nuclear agreement has played an important role in:

o Facilitating the recent Indo-U.S. rapprochement.

o helped India make progress in developing clean energy options

o Ending isolation at the technology regimes such as the MTCR and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

o Made nuclear commerce possible with other countries

1.3.1. The Civil Nuclear Deal: Opertaionalisation

♤ However the operationalistaion of the agreement hinged on resolving:

o issues related to some of the provisions of the Indian Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA),

o a successful negotiation of the administrative arrangements for the implementation of the India-US 123 nuclear agreement.

♤ The issues in respect of CLNDA related to:

o the conformity of CLNDA with the provisions of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC), signed in 2010– but ratified in 2016 - by India;

o Sec. 17(b) of CLNDA, which allowed for Right of Recourse against the supplier; and

o Sec. 46, which allowed for legal cases against the operator under Acts other than the CLNDA.

♤ The administrative arrangements under discussion were with respect to the accounting and tracking of US-supplied nuclear materials and materials produced with the use of US- supplied.

♤ During Prime Minister Modi's visit to the U.S. in September 2014, the two sides set up a Contact Group for advancing the full and timely implementation of the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, and to resolve pending issues.

♤ During President Obama’s visit to India in 2015, it was the announced that India and the United States had come to an understanding on the two major issues that stood in the way of the successful full implementation of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

♤ The two sides started the preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse. Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind.

♤ The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse are in talks toward finalizing the contractual arrangements, and addressing related issues.

♤ The Westinghouse however, on 29 March 2017, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York. This perhaps is a bottleneck in the progress of its projects in India that both countries would have to overcome. The deal is being reworked now.