NEW DELHI: US ambassador to India Sergio Gor on Wednesday hinted at a major India-US collaboration in the nuclear energy sector.Responding to a post by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on a meeting with an executive delegation of the Nuclear Energy Institute and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum under the ‘US Nuclear Executive Mission to India’, Gor said, “Big things ahead in India-US collaboration on nuclear energy!”Earlier, Fadnavis said that significant changes are taking place in the global energy transition process. Although Maharashtra has been making substantial investments in solar and wind energy for many years, nuclear energy will become essential for carbon-free and industrial-scale baseload power supply.More than 40 per cent of India’s total foreign investment comes to Maharashtra. Nearly 60 per cent of the country’s data centre capacity is concentrated in the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai areas. Sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, logistics and advanced manufacturing are expanding rapidly in Maharashtra, which will lead to a manifold increase in electricity demand in the coming years.This comes ahead of US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to India from May 23 to 26. The four-day visit will take him to Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur and New Delhi, combining high-level strategic engagements with cultural outreach.Against that backdrop, energy security is expected to emerge as one of the central themes of Rubio’s discussions with Indian leaders.Rubio’s visit is also expected to cover a broader basket of strategic issues, including defence cooperation, maritime security, critical technologies and supply-chain resilience.Talks are likely to include discussions around the Quad grouping, defence interoperability and regional coordination amid rising geopolitical uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific.
