India and Canada on Monday signed a landmark civil nuclear deal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assuring that imported uranium and atomic technology will not be used for "any unintended purpose." Singh said the nuclear cooperation pact "breaks new grounds" in the history of Indo-Canadian cooperation in the atomic sector while his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper called it a good agreement because "we cannot live in the past of 1970s". The agreement will enable India to import Canadian atomic equipment and technology and secure uranium by providing the Canadian nuclear industry access to the expanding multi-billion dollar Indian nuclear market. The possibility of having joint ventures will also be explored, according to a report of the Press Trust of India (PTI). The agreement which was signed in the presence of Singh and Harper came 36 years after Canada slapped sanctions on India for testing an atomic bomb in 1974.
