The now-familiar debate over Bt brinjal, the first genetically modified food crop almost poised for commercial production in India, posits greater productivity and resistance to pests against health and environmental concerns. A new semi-debate has been generated by the decision of the Union environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, to conduct public consultations across the country at which scientists, non-governmental organizations, and representatives of consumer bodies may present their views. Scientists in...

Senior biotechnology scientists have questioned the rationale for public consultations on genetically modified (GM) brinjal called by the environment ministry to decide the fate of what could be India’s first biotech food crop. “I think this (public consultation) is absolutely unwarranted,” said Shantu Shantaram, a scientist who was among the world’s first regulators of biotech crops in the US during the 1990s and who says he strongly favours the introduction...

Multinational companies will now find it very difficult to patent products made by using Indian traditional knowledge of science. The Indian government has digitized all traditional knowledge of medicine available in India and has shared it with the US President and United States patents office so that nobody benefits unduly by using Indian knowledge and files for patents on such products. "We call it traditional knowledge in a digital library," said Minister...

A revolution in small farm management is essential to revitalise the country’s agriculture sector, according to noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan. Corporate farming would be detrimental to India. Farming was the largest private sector enterprise in the country, and any bid to take away land from the farmer would be counter-productive. But a symbiotic relationship between farmers and industry, resulting in a win-win situation for both, would be good, he...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the problem of climate change now turning into an increasing reality, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is working on the development of a model that can forecast the subtleties of the phenomenon with a fair degree of accuracy into the next five or 10 years, according to Secretary to the Ministry of Earth Sciences Shailesh Naik. Addressing a session on ‘Science Programme for the Country,’at the 97th Indian...