28th May 2o16.
US President Obama Hugs Hiroshima Survivor ~ First Nuke Liability Policy in India
Posted on the 28 May 2016 by Sampathkumar Sampath
US
President Obama laid a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace
Memorial on Friday, telling an audience that included survivors of America’s
atomic bombing in 1945 that technology as devastating as nuclear arms demands a
“moral revolution.”Thousands of Japanese lined the route of the presidential
motorcade to the memorial in the hopes of glimpsing Mr. Obama, the first
sitting American president to visit the most potent symbol of the dawning of
the nuclear age. “Seventy-one years ago, on a bright cloudless morning, death
fell from the sky and the world was changed,” Mr. Obama said in opening his
speech at the memorial.
Obama
was not expected to apologize for the U.S. action to hasten the end of World
War II and he did not during his 20-minute-long remarks.In the Hiroshima
museum's guest book before his speech, the President wrote that he hoped the
world will "find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a
world without nuclear weapons."During
the speech, the park was silent except for a circling helicopter, chirping
birds and camera shutters.Obama said there is a "shared
responsibility" to look into the "eye of history" and ask what
must be done to prevent another nuclear weapon being used.He urged that the
world make moral progress alongside its remarkable scientific advancements.
During
his visit, President Barack Obama hugged Shigeaki Mori, an atomic bomb survivor
who created the memorial for American WWII POWs killed at Hiroshima. Mr Obama spoke to two survivors and in an
address called on nations to pursue a world without nuclear weapons.At least
140,000 people died in Hiroshima and another 74,000 three days later in a
second bombing in Nagasaki.Mr Obama first visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum before walking to the Peace Memorial Park, accompanied by Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe.Both men stood in front of the eternal flame. Mr Obama laid a wreath
first, followed by Mr Abe.
Back
home, Economic Times reports issuance of a liability policy – a significant one
at that – the First Nuclear Liability Policy aimed to push private
investment.
The
report states that the country's first
Nuclear Operator's Liability Policy has been issued to Nuclear Power
Corporation of India , underwritten by a consortium of insurance companies
through the India Nuclear Insurance Pool. The policy was the missing component
from the set of requirements for getting private investment in nuclear power -
the doors for which were opened ten years ago when the then Manmohan Singh -
led government signed the civil nuclear agreement with the US.
The
report adds that the entireRs
1,500-crore India Nuclear Insurance Pool is entirely supported by domestic
companies and is managed by General Insurance Corporation ( GIC ), which has
also committed funds to the pool. The first policy was issued by New India
Assurance - the largest state-owned company. Chairperson, GIC, is quoted as saying "In all history, there have been only
three nuclear accidents - Three Mile Island (US), Chernobyl (now Ukraine) and
Fukushima (Japan) and the probability of another is remote. Though the nuclear deal ended India's
isolation, investment was not forthcoming. This was because nuclear risks are
generally excluded by insurers and nuclear power operators have a maximum
liability of Rs 1,500 crore under the new law.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
28th May 2o16.
28th May 2o16.