Obama names Hillary Clinton authority for India n-deal

By Arun Kumar, Washington, March 11 : President Barack Obama has delegated his authority to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to send mandatory certifications regarding the landmark India-US civil nuclear deal to the US Congress after every six months.

"By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby delegate to you the functions conferred upon the President by section 204(c) of the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act (Public Law 110-369)," he said in a Presidential Memorandum.

Obama also asked Clinton to publish the memorandum regarding "Delegation of Certain Functions under Section 204(c) of the United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act (Public Law 110-369)" in the Federal Register.

Under the act, the US president needs to certify to the appropriate congressional committees that it is the policy of the US to work with members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), individually and collectively, to agree to further restrict the transfers of equipment and technology related to the enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.

The president is also asked to report to the Congress and achieve, by the earliest possible date, either within the NSG or with relevant NSG participating governments, the adoption of principles, reporting, and exchanges of information as may be appropriate to assure peaceful use and accounting of by-product material in a manner that is substantially equivalent to the relevant provisions of the agreement.