New Delhi, September 29: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country’s nuclear energy programme has allowed India to ‘think big’ and that power from nuclear plants would reduce its over dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change over the next decades.
He also said there will be ‘huge opportunities for the global nuclear industry to participate’ in India’s nuclear industry which is ‘poised for major expansion’.
India sees increased power production as key to sustain its economic growth. The country currently relies on imports for about 70 per cent of its oil needs and the Planning Commission estimates that about 600 million people are not on the national grid.
Addressing an international conference on peaceful uses of atomic energy, Singh said that 470,000 megawatts of energy could come from Indian nuclear power stations by 2050.
—PTI