ABSTRACT
Challenges around nuclear safety and security are not new to India. Located in a not-so-benign neighbourhood, India has remained concerned about nuclear materials’ security for several decades. These have prompted India to respond with appropriate measures, institutionally and in policy terms. Many of these measures came in the 1970s and 1980s, but these have been suitably amended in line with changing regional and global security scenarios. Despite having an extensive and complex architecture to address nuclear security threats, India has not done well in global assessments of nuclear security policies and practices. This is mostly due to India’s excessive cautious approach to nuclear security issues and therefore, India has not made much effort at publicizing its nuclear security policies and practices. This approach led many countries around the world to assume that nuclear security is not important in India’s security agenda and that India does not have a dynamic policy, both of which are far from reality. As India gets more and more integrated into the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture, it would be wise to be more open and engage more with other countries on this issue.
