With Parliament passing the nuclear energy bill, India has opened up the civil nuclear energy sector to the private sector. It took over three decades, since the sweeping 1991 economic reforms, for the country to allow private participation in strategic sectors and end the state monopoly over defence production, aerospace, and now nuclear energy. The passage of the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025 (SHANTI), can therefore be described as a bold move by the BJP-led NDA government.

The BJP can be credited with providing a substantial impetus to strengthening the country’s energy security, although a strong foundation in terms of policy and regulatory frameworks was laid by the previous UPA government. Even though, due to political compulsions, the BJP may keep haranguing with wildly exaggerated claims that nothing was done by the Congress Party, the truth is that several important initiatives were Congress projects which were once opposed and even obstructed by the BJP as an opposition party and, after 2014, were repackaged and implemented with renewed vigour. A case in point is the vehement opposition mounted by the BJP against the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Deal with regard to supplier liability. Once in power, it was forced to eat its words and follow the UPA model. Now the government is tying itself in knots to rationalise its stance on supplier liability provisions that it once recklessly opposed. While acknowledging the removal of supplier liability, the government maintained that it was done after “detailed consideration of global practices and advances in reactor safety, while negligence and penal provisions remain enforceable under the law”.

The present SHANTI Bill aims to reap the benefits accrued from the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government’s strong diplomatic thrust to end the so-called nuclear apartheid faced after the 1998 nuclear tests that rattled the major nuclear powers. The UPA government’s stupendous achievement in nuclear diplomacy was securing a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) without signing the global Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It requires magnanimity and a spirit of bipartisanship when it comes to strategic and national interests to acknowledge the impressive work done by past governments.

The improved and modernised framework paves the way for private sector participation, which is enabled by the UPA government’s NSG waiver that allowed the import of nuclear fuel and technology. Unless insisted upon by the government, there is a possibility of the private sector depending on foreign companies such as General Electric, Westinghouse Electric Co. and France’s EDF, rather than using indigenous reactor and fuel-cycle technologies developed by the public sector Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Moreover, the government should broaden private sector participation to multiple players rather than promoting just a couple of conglomerates such as Adani Power, Reliance Industries and Tata Power. The government should learn from the Indigo fiasco and be cautious about the dangers of duopoly in strategic sectors.

While the promotion of small modular reactors is important, and retaining government control over sensitive materials and management of spent fuel is reassuring, there are valid concerns regarding safety aspects and the liability of private players. This clean energy initiative is a welcome move and, amid global uncertainties around crude oil, it will help reduce dependence on fossil fuels as well.