-The Indian Express Will not halt research but not rushing through decision, says Javadekar. HELPING THE government buy peace with activists protesting against granting clearance to the first transgenic food crop in the country, the biotechnology regulator on Friday deferred a decision on allowing the cultivation of a genetically-modified (GM) hybrid mustard. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), a body under the Environment Ministry that regulates the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs),...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Doctors have expressed surprise at Union minister Maneka Gandhi's idea of mandatory prenatal sex disclosure with some medics warning that such a move could lead to a steep increase in the abortions of female foetuses and legitimise a criminal practice. They say the idea to reveal the sex of an unborn foetus to every woman presumably to track any attempt to selectively abort female foetuses would provide couples...

-Business Standard Keeps records of Deliberations and biosafety data under lock Keeping its agenda, records of discussions and results of safety trials under wraps, the environment ministry’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is set to decide next week whether it is safe to commercially grow genetically modified mustard. The committee is scheduled to meet on February 5 and could make a final recommendation on what could be India’s first commercially-grown genetically modified...

-The Hindu Business Line The mythology of free trade being a force for economic progress remains entrenched in world politics Globalisation has created a unique spectator sport, where political dignitaries periodically gather at carefully chosen venues for days of Deliberation over humanity’s most consequential problems. It is a spectacle at which ‘civil society’ — as the new force in world politics is called — is granted a tent of its own, financed...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Call it ironical or plain bureaucratic secrecy, the government does not want to share the details of appointment of new Chief Information Commissioner RK Mathur. Anjali Bhardwaj of National Campaign for People's Right to Information had filed an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking details of the appointment process including names of people considered, number of applications received, file notings and whether a search committee...