-The Hindu The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) on Friday gave the green signal for field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice, mustard, cotton, chickpea and brinjal at its meeting in Delhi. Hem Kumar Pande, chairperson of the GEAC told The Hindu that meetings were not held for a year since March 2013 and there was a backlog of 70 applications pending since 2011-12 of which 60 have been cleared so far. Friday's...
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Golden Rice –A Revolution Still Waiting to Happen
-Oryza.com "Golden Rice will certainly be accepted one day. We are only trying to put pressure so it will be accepted earlier than later. Each second of the day a child dies unnecessarily." These are the words of Dr. Patrick Moore, Canadian ecologist and former director of Greenpeace, who is leading a campaign to make Golden Rice acceptable in the EU and across the world. What's surprising about Dr. Moore's words...
More »Uttarakhand chief secretary raises estimate of missing 10-fold from 350 to 3,000 -Pankaj Doval, DS Kunwar, Durgesh Nandan Jha & Rema Nagarajan
-The Times of India DEHRADUN/ NEW DELHI: The official number of the missing in the Uttarakhand disaster sharply rose from 350 to 3,000 on Thursday, intensifying fears that the death toll is likely to eventually be much higher than what was earlier estimated. Unofficial estimates place the figure at the double the current official estimate. The missing figure was given out by Uttarakhand chief secretary Subhash Kumar, who said, "The objective is...
More »Big Forensic Science Laboratory backlog hampers probes
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Rohini has begun a fresh round of recruitments. That may help in clearing the huge backlog of cases here which hampers investigation and delivery of justice. There were 8991 cases pending till the beginning of this year. The pendency was highest in the chemistry unit with 5433 cases. Though there are 337 sanctioned posts at FSL, a staggering 194 are...
More »Can genes be patented?-Devangshu Datta
-The Business Standard Angelina Jolie has inadvertently highlighted a key question about patenting Angelina Jolies recent double mastectomy was obviously a very radical decision. It is unusual for a healthy person to opt for pre-emptive surgery to avert the probability, however high it may be, of getting cancer. The tests Jolie relied on are also at the heart of a legal battle, which could affect US biotech patenting norms. Since the US...
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