India needs to still rework the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill passed by Parliament after the Obamas would have returned home, said Ron Somers, president of the US-India Business Council. He said the ?Bill is unfortunately not workable. It?s not in line with international conventions therefore its in also in the interest of Indian companies like Bharat Forge, L&T, GVK, Reliance Energy, Tata Power a — companies that will be engaged in Indian civil nuclear programme as well as the world?s nuclear renaissance ? they will ultimately want a liability regime in line with international convention?.
He however agreed that the recent signing by India of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation is a very positive step. He said the Indian laws must align with the international convention prescribed by the International Atomic Energy Agency to create a minimum liability in the unlikely event of a nuclear accident. ?You don?t want a liability with accident victims, you want a insurance pool that can attend to victims needs?.
Somers also affirmed that simultaneously protectionism will hurt the US in the long run. ?We heard Jeffrey Immelt say lets start opening up the power sector and get the infrastructure development going, and companies like GE will take care of the outsourcing backlash back home. The more we can engage with one another, where the American people can see the benefit of an open market to India, the less concern they will have about outsourcing. Its a two way street and we have to work together to make the opportunity that is India evident to the American public.?
According to him the huge increase projected for defence deals will spawn technology spinoffs that will benefit virtually every sector of both economies ?In the end the technology that comes from defence ? the internet, the computer ?deeper defence collaboration between the US and India will deepen technology collaboration. And these technologies will be applicable across all sectors and therefore we should be deepening our partnership in defence. For most problems in the world today and going forward the solutions will come from technology application. Technology is central and defence is based on technology, so the deepen the defence relationship, more technology will come out of that?.