nuclear deal

quote
"From what little I have been able to gather from the various tit-bits that keep making guest appearances in the newspapers, the agreement does not really give India many opportunities to develop its indigenous nuclear-enabled power generation and associated (or otherwise) research??"
unquote

From what I understood, the agreement says that nuclear facilities which recieve fuel and/or technology from other countries have to be placed under international safeguards. The rest can continue as India pleases, also new plants can be established and if these do not recieve any inputs (in terms of fuel or technology) from other countries, any kind of work/research can be done in these facilities. In the facilities under international safeguards we should be able to do some research( I am not very sure if the agreement prohibits this or not).

But whatever the case may be, the fact is power infrastructure in the country is in a very bad shape. When the capital itself reels under frequent power cuts, one can only imagine the situation in the rural areas. This deal enables India to obtain necessary fuel and vital technological inputs from abroad. Hence all in all I consider there are more positives for us than negatives, if any.