Environmentalists, civil society groups and scientists working with marginal farmers have welcomed recommendation of the Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) placing a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops in India. The TEC freeze advice includes field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops which are used directly for human consumption. (See links below for the actual report and more details) The TEC, which was appointed in...
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No nod, yet Monsanto tried GM maize: RTI by Zia Haq
US biotech firm Monsanto had put a variety of genetically modified maize on trial without permission and India's biotech regulatory panel overlooked the violation, according to facts accessed under RTI, a leading anti-GM body has said. Such violations could queer the pitch for the biotech giant and sharpen criticism that it pays scant regards to rules, even though Indian farmers have widely taken to its variety of BT cotton, which has...
More »ICAR forms panel to unravel mystery of Monsanto gene in ‘indigenous’ Bt cotton by Sandip Das
The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) will set up an expert committee to look into patent violation issues concerning Bikaneri Narma, which was claimed to be the country’s first indigenous public sector-bred Bt cotton (genetically modified) seed variety. Bikaneri Narma Bt Cotton also promoted as ‘completely indigenous Bt variety’ was developed by Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, along with Indian Agricultural Research...
More »Activists oppose BRAI Bill by Priscilla Jebaraj
Even as the area around Parliament was swamped by crowds of Anna Hazare's supporters, demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill on Wednesday, a small group of environmental activists staged their own demonstration against a different bill, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, 2011. Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was scheduled to introduce the controversial BRAI Bill in the Lok Sabha, but the House did not conduct regular business due...
More »Coalition opposes GM crop trials in State
-The Hindu The Coalition for GM-Free India has expressed concern over the way field trials for genetically modified crops and seed production were being allowed in the State. At a national meet here, the Coalition wanted the government to disallow these trials as was done by States like Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Chhattisgarh. Cautioning against any move to revoke the requirement of State's no objection certificate (NOC) for any...
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