"Making technological choices requires foresight and forecasting as per the country's needs and in order to improve the quality of life and standard of living of people India cannot do without nuclear power," he said.

Both India and China do not have enough fossil fuel and to provide electricity the countries will have to go ahead with the nuclear energy, Chidambaram said speaking on the topic 'India's technology needs - Nuclear to Rural'. Both fast breeder reactors to feed the Grid as well the food processing industries for rural India are important to enable the people of both urban and rural India improve their quality of life, he said last night at the annual function of the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) here.

Chidambaram also stressed on critical technology development and equilibrium among their development. Research, development and delivery has to reach rural areas and science agencies must emphasise on innovation, he said. It is also important to realise that the evolutionary changes are more important than revolutionary changes and therefore for more industrial development in the country it is important to have enhanced academia-industry interaction interfaces, he said.

He said India should optimally use visible technologies, identify and stimulate latent capabilities and leverage international collaboration to fill the knowledge gap. ICT director and Vice-Chancellor Prof G D Yadav said ICT will come up with a new Academic and Research Centre and the entire project is expected to cost Rs 42 crore. A large portion of the fund will come from the Department of Atomic Energy, he added.