Pitching for balance between rights and responsibilities towards environment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande today inaugurated the interim secretariat of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) here, hailing it as a "new chapter".
The initiative aimed at increasing utilisation and promotion of solar energy in solar-rich nations was launched by both the leaders on the sidelines of Conference of Parties (CoP21) in Paris last month.
Both the leaders also laid the foundation stone of the headquarters of ISA at the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) in Gurgaon.
Unveiling the plaque, Modi said that although the ISA will be headquartered in India, it will function as a global and independent institution meant to benefit entire mankind.
"While ISA is headquartered in Gurgaon, this will be not be an institution of India alone. This will be an global institution and will function independently.
"Like United Nations and World Health Organisation, it also belongs to the while world," Modi said, adding that people from different countries will discharge various responsibilities for this initiative to give some sort of a heritage to the world.
Modi who travelled with Hollande from Delhi to Gurgaon in a Metro train said that this step is also aimed at sending a message that such environment friendly steps could also be ways to fight global warming.
The Prime Minister stressed that India and France share much in common about their goal to resolve the issue of global warming.
Stressing that developing countries had their developmental needs, Modi said that this cannot be possible without the use of energy and hence the dilemma before the world is how to protect the environment while meeting the developmental needs of such nations.
"Energy has become an integral part of a nation's development journey. For the past one year, the world has been deliberating on how to combat global warming. This alliance ensures the world gets more energy and there is also a focus on innovation," Modi said.
French President Hollande said that a "new chapter" opens for nations to utilise the power of the sun.
ISA, an initiative of Prime Minister Modi, is an alliance of 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
India offered to host ISA at the premises of NISE and has offered a 5 acre land. Three floors of the Surya Bhawan of NISE has been offered for starting the interim Secretariat.
