The Indian government Sunday welcomed a US decision to lift sanctions against the country imposed following a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted in 1998.
Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha welcomed the waiving of the punitive sanctions, although he added that it was not a "development of earth-shaking importance".
"It is a good thing that sanctions have been lifted but it's a minor issue as far as the Indian economy is concerned because sanctions have spent themselves out," he told the Press Trust of India.
"As far as the Indian economy itself was concerned, except for certain defense supplies, sanctions had no meaning," he added.
At the same time the US lifted sanctions against Pakistan, which carried out nuclear tests soon after India.
The move came after Washington piled pressure on Pakistan to force its military government to convince Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime to hand over Osama bin Laden -- the top suspect in last week's terror strikes on New York and Washington.
The process of lifting sanctions was accelerated after the attacks, but the US administration had already made it clear that they had outlived their usefulness and had eased many of the restrictions to India after the visit of US President Bill Clinton last year.
But the removal of the sanctions, which restricted military sales and economic assistance, could be greeted with a sigh of relief at a large number of big Indian firms who have been unable to have access to crucial technologies for many projects, experts said.
"There are 51 companies which had been classified under an entities list who will be able to get technology," said Commodore Uday Bhaskar, deputy director of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis.
These companies had been stopped from gaining technology classified as "dual use" -- those which could be used for both commercial and military purposes.
"It was very clear that after September 11 attacks, there would be a review of the existing politico-strategic relationship the US has with India and Pakistan," Bhaskar said.
"The lifting of the sanctions is a reflection of this determination."
He said that Pakistan would stand to benefit more from the decision, but India would also gain substantially if the definition of dual-use technology was interpreted in a liberal manner.
The decision could help India's security forces in their maintenance and operation of equipment like Sea King Helicopters which ran into problems over the supply of equipment banned by the US.
Experts said the US had already begun to help India on major defense projects following Clinton's visit and Sunday's decision could only help to strengthen this further.
The move is also likely to boost the development of nuclear energy in India which could help counter severe electricity shortages -- NEW DELHI (AFP)
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