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...
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Non-GM soya varieties have immense opportunities
Union ministers may be squabbling heatedly over whether the moratorium on Bt Brinjal was right or wrong, but trade associations related to soya, a commodity which has been virtually swamped by the GM variety worldwide, are clear that the growing agri-biotech bandwagon has opened up immense new opportunities for safer, traditional, non-GM soya varieties. The Soy Food Promotion and Welfare Association announced the launch of a two day International Soy...
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....
More »Survey reveals low level of condom consciousness by Aarti Dhar
The study was conducted in six States and is based on interviews of over 51,000 individuals Findings also underscore the limited awareness on most sexual and reproductive matters Leading sources of information on sexual matters were friends and the media Less than one in three women know that a condom can be used just once, and just one in six know that a condom cannot disappear into a woman’s body. These are...
More »UN’s annual conference with civil society groups to spotlight global health issues
Global health will be the focus of this year’s annual United Nations conference with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the head of the UN’s Department of Public Information (DPI) announced today. Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, issued a joint statement with the Australian Government in which he said the UN DPI/NGO conference – now in its 63rd year – will be held in Melbourne from 30 August to 1...
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