THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 5, 2016- Topic 2
India has completed
agreements for civil nuclear cooperation with 11 countries so far, including
the U.S., Russia, Australia, Canada and South Korea, but the upcoming agreement
with Japan could be the most
significant. Japan is the only country to have been the victim of a nuclear attack, and its decision
to sign an agreement with India, a country that has not signed the Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), would be a first. Reservations
in Japan against nuclear energy have hardened after the Fukushima accident.
Tokyo’s support to the deal so far is therefore an indication of the importance
it accords to relations with India. For India, the civil nuclear agreement with
Japan is especially important for the message of trust it would convey to
Nuclear Suppliers Group members in a year the country hopes to have its
admission accepted. Japan’s support at the NSG has been particularly marked. In
fact, India and Japan share many multilateral platforms, including membership
of the G-4 group that is knocking at the UN Security Council’s door for reform.
Beyond symbolic reasons, Japanese nuclear energy technology and safety
parameters are widely considered to be cutting-edge, and many critical parts
needed for Indian reactors are made by Japanese manufacturers. These will not
be available to India until the agreement is done. Although India has even
considered trying to manufacture them locally, there won’t be alternatives to
Japan for several years. Even the U.S. civil nuclear deal, that is yet to be
actualised, is contingent on the deal with Japan, given that the current
discussions for six reactors in Andhra Pradesh are with Westinghouse, which is
owned by the Japanese company Toshiba.
It may appear baffling why
the deal has taken so long to negotiate. The main sticking point has been
India’s refusal to sign the NPT, as it considers the treaty unfair to the
developing world. This is why New Delhi is keen on ensuring that in the haste
to seal the deal by the time Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Japan this
winter, it doesn’t give in to pressure to adhere to anything more than its own
self-declared moratorium on testing. The Japanese insistence on a
“nullification” clause that the agreement would cease as soon as India tests,
will be judged with this balance in mind. Particularly post-Fukushima, Japanese
manufacturers will also be expected to be more generous with India on the
liability issue, given their own experience with the enormous cost of cleaning
up. As always, and even more so than with the India-U.S. agreement, the devil
will be in the detail of the final draft.
Vocabulary
Hardened: experienced in a particular job or activity and therefore not easily upset
by its more unpleasant aspects.
Example: Hardened police
officers
Synonyms: inured, desensitized, deadened, accustomed, habituated
Convey: transport or carry to a place.
Example: Pipes were laid to
convey water to the house
Synonyms: transport, carry, bring, take, fetch, bear, move, ferry, shuttle
Knocking: strike a surface noisily to attract attention, especially when waiting to
be let in through a door.
Example: I knocked on the
kitchen door
Synonyms: bang, tap, rap, thump, pound, hammer, strike, hit, beat
Actualised: make a reality of.
Example: He had actualized
his dream and achieved the world record
Contingent: subject to chance.
Example: The contingent
nature of the job
Synonyms: chance, accidental, fortuitous, possible, unforeseeable, unpredictable
Haste: excessive speed or urgency of movement or action; hurry.
Example: Working with
feverish haste
Synonyms: speed, hastiness, hurriedness, swiftness, rapidity, quickness
Moratorium: a temporary prohibition of an activity.
Example: An indefinite
moratorium on the use of drift nets
Synonyms: embargo, ban, prohibition, suspension, postponement, stay
Nullification: use one's authority to reject or cancel (a decision, view, etc.).
Example: The legislature's
insistence on overriding his budget vetoes
Synonyms: disallow, overrule, countermand, veto, quash, overturn
Generous: of a person showing a readiness to
give more of something, as money or time, than is strictly necessary or
expected.
Example: She was generous
with her money
Synonyms: liberal, lavish, magnanimous, munificent, giving, openhanded