New Delhi, Dec. 18 -- The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Bill, 2025 or the SHANTI bill via a voice vote after the Opposition, which demanded that the bill be referred to a parliamentary panel, walked out in protest. The bill proposes the grant of licences to private companies to operate nuclear power plants, the removal of an existing contentious liability clause for suppliers of fuel and technology, as well as the rationalisation of the levels of payouts by operators in case of accidents. It aims to boost investments in the nuclear power sector to help India achieve its ambitious target of 100 GW of nuclear power capacity by 2047. Union minister for state for atomic energy Jitendra Singh, who had introduced the bill earlier in the week, defended the liability provisions. "The suppliers' responsibility will lie with the operator, who is free to have an agreement (with the supplier). Earlier, the word suppliers had a board definition and as a result, everybody was hesitant to come forward. There was a silent phobia. In the last ten years, we lost out on opportunities," he told the Lok Sabha in his reply to the debate. Singh argued that most of the security provisions have been retained from the Jawaharlal Nehru-era's 1962 law on atomic energy. The bill proposes to repeal the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLND Act) 2010. It removes a clause in the CLND Act, that gave the operator of a nuclear power plant the right of recourse in case of damage that has "resulted as a consequence of an act of supplier or his employee, which includes supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services." Global suppliers of components and fuel had been concerned about the law allegedly allowing action against suppliers in case of any damage. The government has now proposed to completely do away with this clause in a bid to allay their concerns. This section has been a major deterrent for several US companies. "In the 2010 bill, there was capping of liability. Now, we have rationalised it and done different grading. Capping is for the operator but full compensation will be given because the next stage will be the Nuclear Liability Fund which would be established by the Union government. Further compensation will be available through that course," the minister said. Even as many Opposition lawmakers questioned the need for private investments in the atomic energy sector, Singh argued that private investments were required to reach the target of 100 GW of clean energy by 2047. "In 2014, the department of atomic energy's budget was Rs 13,879 crore. Now, it stands at Rs 37,483 crore. If we have kept a target of 100 GW by 2047, we have moved close to our target of green energy sources. If we have to follow a global role for ourselves, we have to follow global strategies. We opened up space. Now we have 300-400 space start ups," he said. "Nuclear energy upscaling is being done to help the health sector, agriculture sector. We have also opened up research to the private sector. If we have to reach our target, currently we have 8-9 GW. We have 25 reactors, out of which, one is not fully functional. Our current contribution (of atomic energy) is just 3%. Our renewable energy will go up but it will not be able to serve all purposes. In 2015, we started joint ventures. We became prisoners of our limited resources. Some embargoes could be done away with," he said....