-Down to Earth 2023 is the International Year of the Millets and during the year, efforts would be made to promote this superfood 2023 is the International Year of the Millets and during the year, efforts would be made to promote this superfood. As millets are adapted to grow in dry and arid regions, they attract big businesses and companies in times when climate change is making cultivation of other cereals difficult. But...

-The Telegraph Study reveals higher genetic diversity in the estimated 100 to 140 bustards in the state Wildlife scientists have discovered unique versions of genes in the last surviving great Indian bustards outside Rajasthan and recommended their introduction into the bustard breeding programme aimed at pulling back the iconic bird from imminent extinction. The unique gene sequences would enrich the gene pool available for India’s conservation breeding efforts underway in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, and...

-Deccan Herald With the general elections a little over a year away, a nod for GM food crops could turn out to be as contentious an issue for the BJP By suddenly giving its nod for the environmental release of genetically modified (GM) herbicide mustard crop - the first edible crop that may enter the food chain in India - the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has stirred a hornet's nest. The...

-Down to Earth Developing countries feel digital sequence information provides a loophole through which developed countries can circumvent the Convention of Biodiversity Negotiations on how to regulate the use of digital sequence information (DSI) of genetic resources could further delay the finalisation of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The process has already been delayed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast potential of...

-TheWire.in The Union government, cut off from the realities of the vast diversity of health and poverty conditions of the country, appears to have bitten the bait of corporate lobbies. Madhu Soren (12) and Bokai Soren (7) are two brothers with thalassemia in a village in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum district. Thalassemia is a genetic blood disorder in which the body has lower than normal amounts of haemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein. When there is...