SHANTI'S VISION: TRANSFORMING ENERGY INTO STRENGTH

WHEN the monsoon first touches the Deccan, a million tiny rivulets knit themselves into rivers.

- JITENDRA SINGH

It is not a thunderclap that turns water into force; it is patient joining-stream to stream, village to village-until the flow is confident enough to light a city. India's journey with the atom has felt like that: quiet channels of science converging over decades, now gathering into a river strong enough to power a data centre at midnight, sterilise a meal in the afternoon, and help a clinician save a child by the evening.

With the introduction of the SHANTI Bill-Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025-we are shaping the riverbed so that this flow reaches every home, industry and institution that needs dependable and clean energy.

To understand why this moment matters, we must begin with the context.

Before 2014, India's nuclear framework was anchored in two separate statutes: the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, which guided development and control, and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, which provided a no-fault compensation regime. Each served its time; each also reflected an era when nuclear capability was primarily a sovereign effort, with very limited pathways for the broader ecosystem-manufacturing, finance, insurance, startups, and advanced research-to participate.

SHANTI draws them together, repealing and replacing them with a single, modern architecture-in one stroke conferring statutory status the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), defining roles and responsibilities with clarity, and opening responsible avenues for public-private participation while reserving sensitive functions to the government.