Its been quite sometime since I visitied my oen blog, forget writing on it. Its happened time and again and I try to come back to it, but its just not working out. My job takes so much time out of me and when I am at home, I want to try and giv time to my beautiful family. Nuff said, I will keep trying, you keep reading.

The past few days I have been thinking a lot about the nuclear deal that India and America (USA) have signed. Its a big step for both the countires, and hopefully, will solve some energy issues that India has. I am not informed or educated enough to make decisions on if the deal has meant that India has sold itslef to USA and has no more control over its nuclear activities. But I will say this, from where I am, a laymen, a commoner, it sure does look like the right step. Without energy, we cannot make the strides that we need to make to keep developing. And, hopefully, this deal will provide some relief to our accute shortage of energy.

Having said that, it also worries me a lot. I really mean A LOT when I say a lot. Why? You may think.

Well, we in India  want everything (and rightfully so) that the world has. We want power, money, houses, cars etc etc. And thankfully, we have started to get some of this, given the recent economic growth in India (by recent I mean going back to about 15 yrs, not as recent as a month back, which may peg us back). And so, we also want clean drinking water and power to drive our growth. I will leave the discussion of why our government cannot provide clean drinking water to Indian citizens for sometime else. Right now, I am happy and worried about the nuclear deal going through. Happy, beacuuse hell we need it badly. Worried….read on…

We Indians, by nature are against regulations. We do not care for rules. Infact most of us take pride is showing off that we do not follow rules. They think that they are giving an impression that they are not scared of anything, most of all, the governance. Also, somewhere at the back of their heads they know that they can buy their way out of any trouble. Not surprising given the corruption levels in India.

It is beacuse of this that people like Warren Anderson and Ottavio Quattrocchi get away with murder in India and live lavish lives in their home countries. It becuase of this that people like Dawood Ibrahim can flee the country, live in another country and still rule the mafia in India. It is beacuse of this that we have the highest grade goons operating as our political leaders. Thankfully, our Prime Minister is a scholar of the highest order.

The point is, if we are to copy the western nations, if we are to gain the level of developments some os these nations have attained, if we are to keep growing, if we are eliminate poverty, we should also copy the rigor and regulations that some of these nations have etched on stone, and follow very strictly. Ok, these nations also have their issues of people not following rules, but these operate at a higher level (usually and until the shit hits the roof like it has in the current financial crisis). A common man in a developed nation has clean drinking water and power at his disposal. And I believe that this is because at that level, all of them follow rules. If they don’t, they get heavily penalized. They usually cannot buy their way out of trouble.

Building and operating nuclear power plants require the strictest of adherance to regulations. One thing goes wrong, and we could have a national disaster. A disaster, the proportions of which i cannot even dream of. Which could wipe of entire cities.

So if we are to build these plants (reactors), we should first make sure that we change our mindset. We should start following rules and regulations. And the government should start implementing them strictly.

Being a part of a highly regulated industry in the USA, I see how they painfully follow the process and shudder at the consequences of circumventing it, though the process usually looks like an overkill. I shudder to think of situations when we have these power plants up and running and some operator, just to prove how tough he/she is and how he/she is not scared of rules does something wrong.  I shudder to think of how a terrorist can bribe his/her way into these facilities and bomb them. I shudder to think of what if……….

Our government should make sure that there is no way we have another Chernobyl or Bhopal like tragedy….we are not strong enough to handle that.