A bill to put in place the proposed biotechnology regulator is likely to be taken up for consideration by the Cabinet at its meeting on Thursday. The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) seeks to replace the existing multiple mechanisms that are operating under different administrative ministries. The proposed bill — initially prepared in 2008 — has been now revised substantially. The proposed authority will now deal only with safety...

The performance of the upcoming biotechnology regulatory authority of India (BRAI), would be supervised by an inter-ministerial governing board, even though the time frame in which the regulatory body would come up is not clear. This is a clear deviation from the previous stance, which conceptualised the setting up of the regulatory body under the direct control of the Department of Biotechnology. “The Bill provides for setting up of inter-ministerial governing...

India’s six science academies have certified genetically modified brinjal as safe through a report whose largest section is plagiarised from a biotechnology propaganda newsletter, a coalition of non-government organisations has said. The six science academies have in a report submitted to the Union environment ministry argued that GM brinjal appeared safe but recommended a limited release, calling for post-marketing surveillance for health effects if any. But a coalition of environmental groups today...

No clarity on which authorities will be competent or which laws will be relevant: Ramesh He agrees with the compromise of Department of S&T as the nodal Ministry The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) will only deal with the safety and efficacy aspects of biotech products, leaving the controversial commercialisation aspect hanging in the air, according to the latest version of the BRAI Bill, 2010. The Bill, which was supposed to be...

The government’s subtle, but significant, move to divest the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of its job of approving the genetically modified (GM) products and convert it into merely a GM appraisal body has taken the biotechnology sector by surprise. The Gazette notification to this effect replaces the word “approval” in the committee’s nomenclature with “appraisal”, thus making it the “Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee”. One obvious reason for doing so...