Environment won’t be stumbling block to growth: Jairam

Still,his remarks showed the emphasis that the Government was placing on reviving economic growth during the continuing global downturn. Especially so,since Ramesh said instructions to this effect had come to him from none other than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself.

“We have been getting feedback from several states and industry organisations that very often environment was emerging as a stumbling block to faster growth. The Prime Minister has told me to clear this impression that the Environment Ministry was a regulatory hurdle in the process of economic growth,” Ramesh told reporters after taking charge of the Environment Ministry.

“Without diluting our environmental standards and short-circuiting procedures,we need to ensure that a more business-like,transparent and time-bound regulatory system is put in place which can act as a facilitator to growth,” he said.

He said he intended to initiate a number of process reforms in the regulatory system to achieve these objectives.

Ramesh also hinted at another significant shift in the ministry’s stand over genetically modified crops by making a distinction between edible and non-edible crops. He strongly supported the production of Bt-Cotton,which had seen a phenomenal rise in India’s cotton yields,but wasn’t sure whether producing Bt-Brinjal was a safe thing to do. “The jury is still not out on that,” he said.