Q: Why is India isolated from the world nuclear market?
Since the 1968 Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty, the US through legislation and rules successfully blocked our access to foreign nuclear technology. This was to prevent India making nuclear weapons and refusing to sign the NPT. India's acquisition of nuclear weapons led to an even tighter embargo. Countries like Russia and France, willing to bend the rules earlier, said they could no longer deal with India on nuclear matters.

Q: How badly has India been affected by this embargo ?
The power reactors of advanced countries have averaged 1000 MW in size for the past decade. The Indian standard is 220 MW, though now we have a 540 MW reactor on stream. Despite the enormous expenditure, it has managed only 3,500 MW till 2006 instead of the promised 10,000 MW by 2000. There are reports that India lacks adequate natural uranium to fuel the new reactors.

Q: Why does US need the deal?
Not for technical reasons. The US is keen on developing closer ties with India for trade and political purposes. There is a limit to this relationship if the country you wish to befriend is also a country extensively embargoed by you.

Q: Is the US seeking this friendship to contain China ?
Perhaps, but not in any conventional military way. The American economic engagement with China is greater than that it has with India. What the US seeks is to hedge its China commitments through deeper involvement with India, a country whose economy is next only to China in terms of potential and with whom it shares common political ethos.