US Senate approves India agreement for cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy- a day before Gandhi’s Birthday

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I guess the bailout approval by the Senate eclipsed a very significant bill that was passed by the US Senate-A bill to approve the United States-India Agreement for Cooperation on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. Check out the official Senate announcement here – passed 50 minutes before the bailout bill. Interesting, I could not find any major US news report online on this very significant development, with all the other excitement surrounding the bailout and elections. I guess – the mainstream US media just has too many things going on.

In any case, the agreement will end India's 34 year  isolation from accessing the latest nuclear power technology and supplies. This is really special because as the Senators explained, although India is only one of the three countries that has not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty  the world's largest democracy India(with a great peace record)  and the world's oldest democracy – the USA would be able to make this agreement work.

The  co-operation between US nuclear suppliers and the booming electricity sector in India would provide business to US companies – at least 3 of the 8 initial nuclear reactors. This in turn would create  much needed jobs here – an estimated  250 000 US jobs , according to the US Chamber of Commerce.

A cause to celebrate the Mahatma's birthday today.The world seems to buy the idea that Gandhi 's India will remain peaceful and focussed on "green" nuclear energy development and not proliferate nuclear weapons.

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