ABSTRACT
The Seventh Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, held in the spring of 2005 in New York, ended in a deadlock. Yet, most developing countries, including India, are falling behind targets set. It will be useful to recall the role Jawaharlal Nehru played in mobilising scientific opinion against nuclear weapons. Early in 1954, he called for setting up of a committee of scientists to explain to the world effect a nuclear war would have on humanity. In 1957, he praised atom bomb survivors for their determination to spread around the globe information on enormous harm that radiation can cause to both the present population and to the generations yet to be born. This conference was chaired by the late Dr. Homi Bhabha, the then Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, who outlined in his Presidential Address a strategy for harnessing the multiple contributions that nuclear tools can make to strengthen food, health and energy security in the world.
