Why In News?

• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida observed a moment of silence at a ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan, to mark the 78th anniversary of the world’s first atomic attack.

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• On August 6 and August 9, 1945, the US attacked Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan with atomic bombs.
•  An estimated 80,000 people died in Hiroshima and 40,000 in Nagasaki from the two blasts and the resulting conflagration (large fires caused by the explosion).
•  Thousands of people died in both cities from exposure to radioactive radiation after the blasts and also from the ‘black rain’ that followed the blasts.
•  The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but killed fewer people and the geographical location of the city limited its effect to a smaller area.
•  Since the beginning of the nuclear age, more than 126,000 nuclear weapons have been created, of which more than 2,000 have been used in various types of nuclear tests.
•  Presently United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are endowed with nuclear weapons.
•  India has both nuclear weapons and an extensive nuclear fuel cycle capability.
•  According to the SIPRI report, in the year 2019, India had 130 to 140 nuclear weapons.
•  India is not a party to both the ‘Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’ (NPT) and the ‘Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty’ (CTBT).
•  India has facility-specific safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and special exemptions from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).  This allows it to participate in global civil nuclear technology commerce.