Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon today said that India is open to hosting a nuclear fuel bank, which is a concept aimed at providing access to enriched nuclear fuel to nations, without the need for them to access enrichment technology.Speaking at the IISS-Citi India global Forum, Menon said, "We run a full nuclear fuel cycle of our own and we would be happy to participate in providing a home for a nuclear fuel bank." He added that discussion on setting up of a nuclear fuel bank was still going on.Menon also said that India hopes to finalise the civil nuclear deal with United States very soon. "We hope civil nuclear cooperation with the US and other countries will become possible soon. We hope to bring it to fruition soon," Menon said.Speaking at the same venue, Prime Minister's media adviser Sanjaya Baru said that he expects inflation levels to drop with a good monsoon which is expected this year. "My guess is that with good monsoon, we will see some easing of food price inflation. And, therefore, the temptation of quick-fix price control will go," Baru said.Adding on, he said that the recent fiscal steps, which amongst others included putting export curbs on steel and ban on cement exports are short-terms measures to tame inflation.He also pointed out that the country is increasingly becoming a food importing nation, in the past few years. "It would be in the interest of India to favour continuation of farm subsidies by the US and the European countries so that import prices remain low," added Baru.Urging for further liberalisation of the education sector, former minister of communication and information technology Arun Shourie said India needs to use information technology to tackle issue like shortage of teachers. "The decrease in standard of education, especially in engineering disciplines is alarming. It is important to maintain standards, without which outlays of the education sector is meaningless," Shourie said
