-The Wall Street Journal   While modern crop engineering faces endless red tape, more slipshod cross-breeding gets a free pass. India has enjoyed signal successes with genetic engineering in agriculture. But today the nation's relationship with this critical biotechnology is in total disarray, the victim of activists' scaremongering and government pandering. Delhi should know better. Following the adoption of the genetically improved varieties and intensive crop management practices of the Green Revolution, from 1960...

-Mainstream Weekly Dr Binayak Sen, an internationally renowned medical practitioner and social activist (a leading figure in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties), was incarcerated in Chhattisgarh and held in detention in Raipur having been branded as a Maoist for his activities in defence of poor tribals in the State. He is now out on bail. The following is the text of the Arvind Narayan Das Memorial Lecture he delivered in...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: Talodhi, a village in Chandrapur district, is emerging as a centre for 'rice breeding' in literal sense. Two retired agricultural scientists from city, a big farming family from the village, the Poshattiwars, and some local farmers have joined hands in developing new genetically pure varieties from locally available varieties. It would not be an exaggeration if Poshattiwars and their team of farmers are called 'farmer scientists' as...

-The Business Standard SC decision to seek views on GM crops welcome  The Supreme Court’s decision to seek views of different stakeholders before considering a 10-year moratorium on field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops, as suggested by the technical committee it had appointed, is welcome. The committee’s recommendation had caused widespread disquiet among the scientific community, a section of the Seed industry and farmers. If the recommendation was accepted by the...

-The Economic Times The Supreme Court on Monday refused to ban open field trials on genetically modified crops despite a court-appointed expert panel recommending a 10-year halt on them.  Hearing a public interest litigation filed by anti-GM food activist Aruna Rodrigues, a two-judge bench of the apex court instead invited views of all the stakeholders on the expert panel's report.  Rodrigues had sought the court's intervention to stop the field trials until a...