No liability for supplier unless
it is in nuclear contract
1) U.S.
suppliers of nuclear reactors and parts will not be directly liable in case of
a nuclear accident, nor can they be sued by Indian nuclear operators unless the
contract they sign clearly states it.
2) The
government of India has assured the U.S. and other suppliers that their
liability would be paid out of an “insurance pool” of approximately $250
million (Rs.1,500 crore), to be funded equally by the government and the
government-owned insurance companies.
3) The
“breakthrough understanding” in civilian nuclear cooperation was reached by President
Barack Obama reached with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
4) The
government was not making changes to the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages
(CLND) Act, 2010, but would read the Act to mean that the supplier’s liability
was not a mandatory part of the contracts to be signed.
5) The U.S.
manufacturers and even Indian suppliers have raised concerns over the CLND law
saying it will be unviable for them to conduct nuclear business in India with
the risk of that kind of liability being “channelled” to the suppliers.
6) The govt
makes it clear that immediate liability for any incident will be channelled
only to the operator — in this case the public sector unit Nuclear Power
Corporation of India Ltd.
important points :
A. Supplier’s liability is not necessary
B. The tort law or civil damages suit clause
for victims does not apply to suppliers
C. Amount of liability will be capped, and
paid for from insurance pool
v
liability
will be capped at $300 million SDRs (Special Drawing Rights)
v
Any
damages above this will come from an international fund, once India ratifies
the international convention on supplementary compensation for nuclear
liability.
v
This
effectively means that the supplier will not be liable, and even the operator
will be liable only for a small fraction of what victims will need.
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India to deploy 'global
calculator' to study climate change
1) Nearly 20
nations (Eleven countries were using this tool and nine more were preparing
their own versions), including India, will deploy a global calculator to
calculate climate impact scenarios in their territories.
2) It is a
free, open-source interactive tool to help assess climate change scenarios over
a period and make changes in lifestyle.
3) The
calculator could illustrate climate impacts based on different choices and was
linked to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.
4) Three main
principles in calculating the impacts of climate change: transparency,
collaboration and simplicity.
5) The
calculator could look at transport efficiency, renewable energy, crop yields
and forests, but the world need to change the way it powered its lifestyle.
6) Businesses
and government, apart from schools and universities, are using this tool
[calculator], and some countries and cities are developing their own specific
tools as well.
7) While
experts had access to climate models, the general public found it difficult to
use them to envisage scenarios. The calculator opened up possibilities for a
larger audience.
8) Colombia
had developed a country calculator to present its Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions (INDC) later this year before the climate change talks
at Paris.
9) The
calculator allow for the use of temperature as a factor, but could not make
calculations based on how much developed countries needed to do or pay.
However, it could be a reference point for country-level calculations and is a flexible
too.
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