India's Environment Minister Works Hard To Reassure Corporations, Investors That He's Not "Dr. No"

India's environment minister sought Monday to reassure corporate leaders that he was pro-industry, saying he did not want to be known as the "Dr No" for blocking economic development.

Jairam Ramesh, whose push to block projects threatening the environment has put him on a collision course with big business and cabinet colleagues, said he understood the need for industrialisation to create jobs.

"I am not Dr No," Ramesh told a corporate forum, referring to the nickname given to him by critics of his proactive green policies. "I assured industry today that we will try and see how we can expedite clearances" of projects, he said.

At the same time, he proposed that there should be "fiscal incentives that reward economic performance and that penalise bad environmental performance" by industry and added business must become "more sensitive" to local issues. Ramesh made headlines by blocking plans by British resource giant Vedanta to mine bauxite in eastern India and has put other major projects on hold, including a new hill station in western India.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/India_environment_minister_rejects_Dr_No_tag_999.html