Top US firms have lobbied hard in India this week for a share in the country's lucrative nuclear market, but there was little progress on key policy issues such as accident liability protection for suppliers. The visit by a 60-member delegation has been the biggest push yet by US companies such as General Electric to enter the multi-billion dollar Indian market opened to global trade after New Delhi signed a deal with the United States last year. US reactor manufacturers and services suppliers have been jubilant over the deal, but they still lag in a competitive scramble with Russian and European firms whose governments guarantee their liability in case of an industrial accident. “Definitely the issue of liability is an extremely important one, and the French and Russians have an advantage here,” Robinder Sachdev, President of Imagindia Institute, an Indian lobby group, said. Indian officials said US firms were being tested on several accounts, including their ability to build reactors because US firms have not built one in the past three decades and the issue of liability. US executives met with Indian atomic energy officials in New Delhi, officials from the state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and private Indian firms for possible partnerships. Ted Jones, director of the US-India Business Council and part of the delegation, said they had identified areas of priority for the US companies wanting to do business in India. “We have identified issues which will affect US and Indian private companies alike and which require attention from policy makers,” he said. “Those issues include civil liability and protection of intellectual properties.” US firms were also trying to identify companies for tie-ups. India, whose nuclear market is valued at about $150 billion over the next few decades, has seen a rush of global companies since the US deal was signed, ending 30 years of global nuclear isolation for New Delhi. India sees nuclear energy as indispensable to fight electricity shortages and to power its economy. It, however, still needs to complete a safeguards agreement proceeds with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the global atomic watchdog, to start nuclear commerce. But US firms are keen that India immediately sign a global convention on liability and compensation that limits the onus on private nuclear operators and suppliers in the event of an industrial accident. Experts say India's divergent politics could mean opposition to any plan to dilute the responsibility of private companies involved in nuclear trade.
