US lifts decades-old restrictions on BARC, IGCAR and Indian Rare Earths in diplomatic breakthrough with India

The United States' Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) has removed three prominent Indian entities from its restrictive list, in a move to strengthen bilateral ties and focus on advanced energy cooperation.

The entities removed from the U.S. Entity List are Indian Rare Earths, Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Center (IGCAR), and Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC).

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the removal of these entities will “support U.S. foreign policy objectives by reducing barriers to advanced energy cooperation, including joint research and development and science and technology cooperation, towards shared energy security needs and goals.”


Indian Rare Earths, IGCAR, and BARC are integral to India's scientific and technological landscape, with key roles in the development of nuclear energy and rare earth materials.

The official release comes a week after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the announcement on Washington's behalf during his visit to New Delhi.

Washington and New Delhi have been in discussions for over a decade regarding the supply of U.S. nuclear reactors to meet India’s growing energy demands.

The conversation took a significant turn in 2007 when then-President George W. Bush signed a deal that paved the way for the United States to sell civilian nuclear technology to India.

Sullivan had said that the U.S. is now moving ahead with steps to remove long-standing regulatory barriers that have historically hindered civil nuclear cooperation between India's top nuclear agencies and American companies.

"We are finalizing the necessary steps to remove these regulations that have previously prevented collaboration between India’s leading nuclear entities and U.S. firms," Sullivan said at a public event on the second day of his two-day visit to India.

He further noted that "the formal paperwork will be done soon," emphasising that this shift would offer an opportunity to resolve past tensions and remove restrictions on entities previously listed by the U.S.

The United States had placed restrictions on over 200 Indian entities after India’s nuclear tests in 1998. However, as bilateral relations improved over the years, many of these entities have since been delisted.

An anonymous Indian official stated that the U.S. Department of Commerce's list still includes several key entities within India's Department of Atomic Energy, along with some nuclear reactors and power plants, according to a report by Reuters.

India has long struggled with stringent nuclear liability laws that have complicated foreign deals for nuclear power plant construction, contributing to delays in the country’s nuclear power expansion goals. As a result, India has pushed back its target to add 20,000 MW of nuclear energy capacity by 2030.