An Agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy was signed on 13 November 2015, during the visit of the Prime Minister to U.K. The scope of cooperation inter alia covers the supply of nuclear material, non-nuclear material, equipment, components or technology, training of personnel and transfer of technology, for peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The U.K. Government's recently stated energy policy is to increase the share of nuclear power in U.K.'s energy mix, to phase out coal-based power. Therefore, the decrease in the share of nuclear power in 2015 in U.K. as reported by the World Nuclear Industry Report, 2015 appears to be a phenomenon unlikely to have a short term impact on the India-U.K. Agreement for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which is premised on India's growing requirement for nuclear power for its low-carbon growth strategy as well as U.K.'s technological expertise in this field.
The Government is cognizant of the importance of both nuclear energy and renewable energy resources for India's growth strategy fuelled by clean energy. Accordingly, cooperation with major international partners such as U.K. includes both nuclear energy and renewable energy. Some of the important initiatives between India and U.K. in the area of renewable energy announced during Prime Minister's visit to U.K. in November 2015 include: (i) setting up a new Virtual Centre on Clean Energy (ii) setting up of India Innovation Lab for Green Finance (iii) U.K.'s support for India's new Global Solar Alliance initiative. Separately, commercial deals worth 3.2 billion pounds were finalized with U.K. in the area of clean energy during the visit. Similarly, Prime Minister of India and President of France jointly launched in Paris on 30 November 2015 an International Solar Alliance (ISA) initiative, with its headquarters in Gurgaon, India, to enhance the use of solar energy globally.
This information was provided by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
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