Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday complained to the Centre about a BT-maize trial by a multinational company at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) campus in Samastipur district without obtaining permission of the state government. In a letter to Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh, Kumar said Monsanto India Ltd laid trial of BT-maize at IARI campus in Pusa on February 21 before receiving a go ahead letter...

The government today said it has adequate regulatory provisions to check the quality of genetically modified (GM) seeds such as Bt Cotton introduced by companies in the country. “The government has adequate regulatory provisions under the Seed Act, 1966, Seed Rules, 1968 and Seed Control Order, 1983 to check the quality of seeds introduced by companies in India,” Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said in a written reply to...

Jairam intervenes after Nitish tells him that he is opposed to such trials Even as the moratorium on commercialisation of Bt brinjal stands, Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to immediately withdraw its permission to Monsanto for field trials of Bt maize in Bihar. Bt brinjal was the first, and maize is the second food crop for which the GEAC has given...

A leading Indian biochemist has urged the environment and forests ministry to lift the moratorium on Bt brinjal, the country's first genetically modified (GM) food crop developed using a technology supplied by the US multinational seed giant Monsanto. 'The moratorium is not affecting the multinational companies but India's own scientists who are ready with more than a dozen GM crops, including (Vitamin-A rich) golden rice,' said Govindarajan Padmanabhan at the Indian...

Close on the heels of the protests over the commercial introduction of Bt brinjal in the country, reports of field trials for a genetically modified (GM) variety of rice in West Bengal has sparked another controversy. A group of scientists held a press conference here on Thursday strongly protesting the development after media reports emerged about the decision of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to grant permission to the Calcutta...