NEW DELHI, May 10: India, which shocked the world with a series of nuclear tests in May 1998, introduced a bill in parliament on Tuesday to ban proliferation and the transfer of missile technology to non-nuclear states.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee introduced the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems bill on the eve of the seventh anniversary of India’s underground nuclear testing that included a 45-megaton thermonuclear device.

The bill would ‘provide an integrated legislative basis to India’s commitment to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass Destruction’, Mr Mukherjee said. India has refused to sign two hallmark agreements on proliferation, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and Non-Proliferation Treaty, saying they are discriminatory because they allow the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to keep their nuclear weapons.—AFP