7 India

India possesses nuclear weapons and had chemical weapons in the past. Although, the country never officially declared the number but it is believed that they have approx 110 weapons. In 1999, India had 800kgs of plutonium of reactor grade, civilian plutonium of 8300kgs, which enough for nearly 1000 nuclear weapons. It is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 1968 but has rectified and signed Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention. The country is a part of Missile Technology Control Regime and subscribing state of Hague Code of Conduct.

The nuclear program in India started in 1944 and was incorporated by scientist Dr. Homi Bhabha, who founded Institute of Fundamental Research, a research center. In 1974, the nuclear device was put to test for the first time and named it “peaceful nuclear explosion”. The country has a policy of “no first use”, which means it will not be the first one to initiate a attack by nuclear weapon but will always respond to it.

...[ Continue to next page ]

Share This Post