BETTER THAN THE BEST
By Ashwini Bhatnagar

"YES, Prime Minister.’ That’s what I said. What else can you tell the Prime Minister?", Atomic Energy Commission Chairman R. Chidambaram replied with a chuckle to a question as to what his response was when he was told about the (then) proposed nuclear tests in Pokhran. "It took us a month to get everything in place," Chidambaram continued with a twinkle in his eye. "It went off perfectly. In fact, all the parameters were exactly as we had calculated before we went for the actual detonations." The quiet confidence of the man who holds one of the most sensitive jobs in the country has to be seen to be believed. "The vision of a nuclear India that Homi Bhabha and Pandit Nehru had has been fully realised," he says. "We are now looking at the future. Our immediate task is Vision 2020 and through it we have to prepare for the next century."

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