Jairam Ramesh-led ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has tied up with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to set up a National Centre for Marine Biodiversity in Jamnagar, the first research institute in the public private partnership (PPP) mode.
?A world class research centre cannot be built in a governmental set up and can never attract young people. So we want to think differently. We have to think differently, how we are going to organise our research institutions. And this is one way of building PPP,? Ramesh said on the sidelines of a conference on Monday.
Asked whether there was any conflict of interest in collaborating with Reliance, he said, ?Life is one large conflict of interest. Jamnagar is also the site of India’s first marine national park.?
The centre would be focussed exclusively on the conservation of the country’s marine biodiversity.
On another controversial issue of the Jaitapur nuclear power project, referring to the statement by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, A P Shah on issues like safety, viability and cost efficiency of nuclear energy, Ramesh said: ?It is very much an unscientific approach to a scientific matter. I am very disappointed with Justice Shah’s statement.?