By Sanjay Suri and Pranshu Sikka , CNBC-TV18

The two-day meet of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) starts today. The meet is expected to clear the India-specific safeguards for the Indo-US nuclear deal.

 

The day is keenly awaited and carefully prepared for. The NSG meeting is due to begin at the Japanese Mission that hosts the Secretariat for the NSG.

 

Deliberations, persuasion exercises have continued right up to the last minute and certainly the Indian hope is that the decision will be agreed right here in this round and that it will not have to go to the fall back meeting that has been considered for early September.

James Acton , Nuclear Expert, King's College said, "India is very likely to get the exemption at the NSG that it's seeking. There is some scepticism, New Zealand, Ireland is frequently named, the Netherlands has come up before. They are all sceptical and worried about the implications of the deal. But when push comes to shove, they are very unlikely to vote against the deal."

Intense diplomatic efforts led by the US and India to win over some opponents of the deal seem to have won over several of the critics.

Lawrence Saez , University of London said, "The circumstances are quite favourable for this to go through, it's mostly a matter of implementation. Whether this goes through before Bush leaves office is mostly a technical issue, but I'm very optimistic that this will happen."

But all the critics are not gone, and given the need for consensus at the NSG deal, some countries are still expected to put up some opposition to the deal.

Mark Fitzpatrick , International Institute for Strategic Studies said, "I think it's more likely that they will raise questions about this deal and ask for those questions to be adequately answered before they are willing to go along with the deal. So in their minds it wouldn't be stopping it, it would be simply seeking additional information."

While many are optimistic, the deal is still being resisted actively by countries such as Austria, Ireland, Switzerland. These are not really players in the nuclear business, but they do have obstructive significance because of the NSG convention on a consensus. And despite some cautious optimism, the campaign to get these on board is going right down to the line.

If the NSG hurdle is cleared, then the isolation is over. India would then be free to trade with several nuclear suppliers, and not just the US.