N-deal would help India achieve energy security: Pranab

As uncertainty looms over the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday strongly spoke in its favour saying the pact would help India achieve energy security.

As uncertainty looms over the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday strongly spoke in its favour saying the pact would help India achieve energy security.

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"The India-US civil nuclear energy cooperation is precisely intended to address our concerns on energy security," he said at the sixth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the annual conference of overseas Indians here.

Seeking to underscore the importance of nuclear energy, he said India should make all possible efforts to build energy stocks, explore alternative avenues of energy and leverage multilateral and bilateral frameworks to secure energy supplies for long term.

"Today, a barrel of oil has touched 100 US dollars and this has sent shock waves across the world. For India, it means additional resource allocation of millions of dollars in our national plan," Mukherjee said.

Mukherjee was the chief guest at a session on 'Developmental Challenges of the States' at the conference where he shared the dais with Chief Ministers Narendra Modi (Gujarat), Sheila Dikshit (Delhi), Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Haryana) and Madhu Koda (Jharkhand).

He underlined the need for inclusive growth and balancing "the rights and needs of the populace with the growing demands of industrialisation". "Sustainable economic growth is more than a buzzword. It is the reality on which our society has to be built," Mukherjee said.