The Future of Nuclear Energy in India

India's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) outlines its intent to scale up the country's clean-energy capacity. At the same time, India's energy poverty remains a big challenge, and the pursuit of the country's development agenda is contingent on extending energy access to millions of citizens who continue to lack connectivity to the power grid. While successive governments have long touted nuclear power as the solution to India's energy woes, actual performance has merely flattered to deceive. India's waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and its agreement with the global atomic body, IAEA, have resulted in limited breakthroughs in the last decade. This paper makes projections for the growth of nuclear power in India through to 2050 and examines the factors that will be critical to the country's civil nuclear ambitions.