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More N-tests unnecessary, says Raja Ramanna

Noted scientist and former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Raja Ramanna, said India need not opt for more tests like the one at Pokhran in May.

''Countries having scores of nuclear blasts used inferior technology, while ours had been the best; the scientists have achieved what is needed for the peaceful use of atomic energy,'' he said.

The eminent scientist, who was in Chandigarh to deliver the ''Nehru memorial lecture'' at the Punjab University, told the media on Monday that he did not think that the Pokhran tests were a mistake.

He, however, termed the imposition of economic sanctions by the United States against India as an ''over-reaction'' and said this would not be of much help to them (the US). India had nothing to fear from these embargoes as it had many other avenues of trade open to it, he said.

He said atomic energy was the best way to produce electricity on a mass scale to meet the increasing power demand.

Expressing his unhappiness over the ''government's inadequate concern'' for research, he said research activities were at its peak during the times of Jawaharlal Nehru and that it had begun dipping during the rule of Indira Gandhi.

UNI

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