Jairam Ramesh slams faculty of IITs,IIMs

The outspoken minister is an alumni of IIT Mumbai from where he obtained his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering 1975.

On his Ministry’s decision to have a joint venture with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to set up a National Centre for Marine Biodiversity in Jamnagar,he said the decision was taken as a world class research centre cannot be built in a “Governmental set up” and can never attract young people.

Asked whether there was any conflict of interest in collaborating with Reliance,the Minister said,”Life is one large conflict of interest.”

“We cannot build a world class research centre in a Governmental set up. The governmental set up can never attract young people. Never. Let us understand our experience in the last 60 years. Government research institutions can never attract young talent.

“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.

“So I have been to Jamnagar and we are in a PPP mode. We are having a joint venture with Reliance to set up a world class national centre for marine biodiversity,” he said.

Jamnagar is also the site for India’s first marine national park,the Minister said.

This would be a new centre that would focus exclusively on the conservation of our marine biodiversity,Ramesh added.

Disappointed with Justice Shah’s remarks: Ramesh

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh termed as “most unscientific approach” former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court A P Shah’s reported remarks that the Jaitapur nuclear power project would be a catastrophe if all the safety concerns were not addressed.

“Most unscientific approach. I am disappointed in Justice Shah,” Ramesh told reporters when asked about remarks of Shah,who is heading a people’s tribunal set up to study the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project.

According to reports,Shah during a hearing on public hearing on the safety,viability and cost efficiency of nuclear energy in Mumbai on Saturday said that Enron was only a financial disaster,but the Jaitapur project would be a catastrophe.

He also lamented the lack of public debate in the country on the Jaitapur project saying “everything is hush-hush.”