IMAGINE THE lowly brinjal you have always known turning into a sci-fi gizmo — with an uncharted potency for good and evil. Imagine a food turned into a pesticide — and you will have a measure of the essential uncertainty around Bt brinjal. When Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced his indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal on February 9, he halted a juggernaut that could have swept India to a point...
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On GM food, Govt begins its Jairam damage control
Pushed to a corner by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s peremptory freeze on Bt brinjal, the UPA government took the first step of finding a way out. And it needed the authority of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to do that. In a clear enunciation of the government’s policy on GM crops — a policy that got clouded by Ramesh’s rhetoric — the Prime Minister underlined the importance of biotechnology in productivity...
More »Manmohan convenes meeting on Bt brinjal today by Gargi Parsai
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of the Ministers concerned with genetically modified (GM) crops on Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Minister of State for Environment and Forests (Independent Charge) Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan are expected to attend. The meeting has been called in response to a letter written by Mr. Pawar earlier this month to Dr. Singh, in which...
More »Ramesh said Bt will destroy brinjal’s ayurvedic value, experts beg to differ by Amitabh Sinha, Teena Thacker
One of the claims Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh made to justify his freeze on Bt brinjal was that the Bt gene would “destroy the medicinal properties of brinjal” which is used in several “traditional” forms of medicine. This claim, too, is being contested by experts as Ramesh comes under increasing pressure from within his government — the Prime Minister has called a meeting after Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar warned against...
More »Biotechnology regulation
The controversy around Bt brinjal has served at least one good purpose. The government has fast-tracked the process of setting up a biotechnology regulator. A regulatory authority is to be set up under an Act of Parliament. A longstanding proposal that has been gathering dust in the Department of Biotechnology has seen the light of day. The Union Cabinet is expected to consider this proposal and bring it to Parliament....
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