Modern biotechnology and biodiversity are basically concepts of Science but have been politicised in the name of conservation and sustainable development, said biotechnology and medicinal plants consultant C Kameshwar Rao. Delivering the keynote address on modern biotechnology, biodiversity and sustainable development at the national conference organized by the Karnatak University department of Botany in Dharwad on Monday, the former professor of Bangalore University said biotechnology approaches had diversified from genetic Engineering...

Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that though India needs to learn appropriate lessons from the crisis at Japan's nuclear plants, the country cannot give up on nuclear energy. "What has happened in Japan is very serious. We will have to learn appropriate lessons and whatever additional safeguards, additional precautions are required we must take, but I don't believe India can abandon nuclear energy (programme)," Ramesh told mediapersons here yesterday. As...

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently alleged that Monsanto, the Union environment ministry’s genetic Engineering approval committee (GEAC) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had colluded to start trials of genetically modified maize in Bihar before clearance from the environment ministry and the state government. The charge is significant: Nitish says ICAR’s experimental farms in Bihar did not maintain the stipulated “isolation distance” from normal farmland, meant to...

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday complained to the Centre about a BT-maize trial by a multinational company at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) campus in Samastipur district without obtaining permission of the state government. In a letter to Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh, Kumar said Monsanto India Ltd laid trial of BT-maize at IARI campus in Pusa on February 21 before receiving a go ahead letter...

The government today said it has adequate regulatory provisions to check the quality of genetically modified (GM) seeds such as Bt Cotton introduced by companies in the country. “The government has adequate regulatory provisions under the Seed Act, 1966, Seed Rules, 1968 and Seed Control Order, 1983 to check the quality of seeds introduced by companies in India,” Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said in a written reply to...