Nuke deal to provide energy security to India: Minister

Chennai, Sep 19 (UNI) The UPA Government at the Centre had clinched the nuclear deal with the United States to provide energy security to the country, Union Minister of State for Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Ashwani Kumar asserted today.

''It's not out of nothing that the deal was clinched,'' he said while delivering his keynote address at a National conference on 'Business Technology : Vision Ahead', organised by the Madras Christian College at suburban Tambaram here.

Since the country was facing challenges in power generation, the Indo-US Nuke deal was essential in the context of providing energy security, which was linked to adding 22,000 MW of power by 2020.

''There should be increase in power generation as there was demand for power in various fields'', he said and added that this was the underlying reason for inking the deal with the US.'' Mr Kumar said Rs 2.83 lakh crore would be invested in 2011-12 to expand the production facilities in India of which 37 per cent would be spent on the infrastructure spread over various sectors.

Observing that the country's future was in the hands of the youth, he said ''India is the youngest nation in the world.'' The labour and manufacturing costs were less in India. The cost of drugs was 45 per cent less when compared to other countries and the engineering cost was 20 to 25 per cent less when compared to other developing countries. ''We will be supplying skilled and semi-skilled work force to the world till 2035'', he added.

''This decade is ours'', he said and exhorted the youth to seize the opportunity to make India a global economic power.

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