-The Telegraph New Delhi: A scientific panel has identified flaws in India's existing regulatory system that governs genetically modified (GM) crops and called for an indefinite moratorium on trials of GM food crops until the regulatory system is fixed. The regulatory system, which the Indian government has used to process dossiers of several GM crops, has "major gaps" and will require "rethinking, investment, and relearning to fix," a technical expert committee (TEC)...
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Monsanto’s climate-resilient crop patent claims rejected -Sanjay Vijayakumar
-The Economic Times CHENNAI: India's patent appeals board has denied Monsanto a patent for a genetically-engineered method of increasing climate resilience in plants. The decision is significant not only for Monsanto's loss of possible exclusivity in an increasingly important segment but also for the interpretation of India's home-grown clauses in patent law - these are unpopular with global companies - for the first time in the case of plants. The Intellectual Property...
More »BRAI Bill criminalising opposition to GM food: NGO
-PTI VADODARA: A Gujarat-based NGO has alleged that the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill introduced in the Parliament aims at "criminalising" opposition to the genetically modified (GM) food. Suman Sahai, who leads the 'Gene Campaign', an organisation, said that according to this "draconian bill", those creating hurdles in the campaign against the GM food, can get three months of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5 lakh. He was speaking at...
More »Environment ministry ignores states' opposition, approves GM trials -Nitin Sethi
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The environment ministry's Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has cleared field trials for genetically modified rice, wheat, maize and castor for the Kharif season of 2013. The clearances - some of them extension of existing clearances that stood to lapse with state governments opposing field trials and others for relocating trial sites - come while the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill is pending before the...
More »No Country For Countrymen -Arun Sinha
-Outlook As the Manmohan Singh government makes evident its unfriendliness to villages, the nation hurtles towards disaster. It's a danger no one wants to face. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been trying for years to make us believe that agriculture is a vast marshland in which a huge population is stuck ankle- to neck-deep and it is his duty to rescue them. "Our salvation lies in moving people out of agriculture," he...
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