The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has published information on biosafety studies of Bt brinjal, developed by MAHYCO, on its official website. The data in eight volumes, runs into more than 1,100 pages. Sources in the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) confirmed that it was the complete data sent by the company which was analysed by the department and forwarded to the GEAC. Greenpeace, which has been demanding that the data be made public and is involved in a long Right to Information (RTI) battle, says the data looks comprehensive, but there is neither an official notification nor an assurance of its completeness from the authorities.

The assistant dean (office of research) of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois said: “By 2025, there will be a shortage of 400 billion tonnes of cereal grains that make up our staple diet.” Speaking to IANS here, Chassy said: “Biotechnology, more precisely genetic engineering, can be a part of the solution, if not a complete answer, to this problem. [...] Chassy does not think using genetically engineered seeds is at all complex for farmers. “Genetic farming is the easiest way to cultivate crops. All that farmers have to do is to plant the seeds and water them regularly. The genetically modified seeds are insect resistant, so there is no need to use huge amounts of pesticides.”

"My family was one of the first to stop using pesticides," says Sattemma, a lively Indian woman in her mid-40s, confidently talking to a group of visiting farmers. "Three years ago, we realised we were spending over half our income on chemicals. It was too much. We were getting into debt and the pesticides were making us ill." Sattemma is in the village of Lakshminayak Thanda in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. The visitors are keen to know how she and other villagers are progressing after their decision to stop using pesticides and Bt cotton, the genetically modified variety manufactured by US biotechnology firm Monsanto.

In the face of soaring global food prices, more and more countries are looking to genetically modified, or GM, crops as the solution to feeding their people. India itself took another step forward in the cultivation of these crops in October 2007: the Missouri-based global seed giant, Monsanto, donated technology to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, for developing a papaya resistant to the ringspot virus, which causes India's farmers heavy losses.

Biochemists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) say they have separated a novel enzyme from rice bran that is capable of converting cooking oils containing triacylglycerol (TAG) into a much healthier diacylglycerol (DAG). The fatty acid constituent TAG in cooking oils is considered unhealthy as high levels of it in the bloodstream can lead to increased risk of heart disease and stroke. DAG oil, on the other hand, has numerous health benefits, including reducing post-meal blood TAG levels and increasing the overall metabolism, thus helping reduce fat already stored in the body.

In a major effort to compete with private seed companies, three prestigious agriculture institutes across the country have developed ’Bikaneri narma’, a new biotech cotton variety which is not only pest-resistant, but also cheaper than the other varieties available in the market. The New Delhi-based Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) in Nagpur and University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad have jointly developed the cotton variety. The National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology (NRCPB) at IARI had worked for over 10 years towards the development of the biotech gene on the popular Bikaneri variety cotton, used by farmers across the country, and transferred it to the CICR and UAS for field trials.

Dr Placid Rodriguez, former president of Indian Nuclear Society and ex Director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, said the deal comes under the whole gamut of strategic alliance covering defence, space, nuclear and agriculture. [...] ”Our agricultural universities, state universities, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) laboratories -- they will be completely overwhelmed by giants like Monsanto whose resources are plenty and whose motivation is only monopoly,” he said. After Bt. cotton, now genetically modified brinjal is going to be brought in, Rodriguez said, adding, ”we don’t know what’s next”.

The genetic engineering industry, in particular Monsanto, which controls 95% of all GM seeds sold worldwide, first tried to by pass India’s Biosafety Law when it started field trials without approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the statutory body for Biosafety regulation. [...] That is why when Monsanto - Mahyco started field trials of Bt. Cotton in 1997-98, without approval of the GEAC we initiated a case in the Supreme Court of India to challenge the illegal trials. As a result commercialization of Bt. Cotton was delayed upto 2002.

More often than not, discussions about India’s policy on genetically modified (GM) crops result in the point being made about how slow the entire process of clearances by the Genetic Engineering Approvals Committee (GEAC) is. One of the reasons for this is that the GEAC does not give credit to tests conducted overseas and insists they be carried out all over again; the alternative approach would be to say that if certain tests have already been conducted in similar agro-climatic zones overseas, the GEAC should assume the same results will obtain in India as well.

Dr Placid Rodriguez, former president of Indian Nuclear Society and ex Director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, said the deal comes under the whole gamut of strategic alliance covering defence, space, nuclear and agriculture. [...] ”Our agricultural universities, state universities, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) laboratories -- they will be completely overwhelmed by giants like Monsanto whose resources are plenty and whose motivation is only monopoly,” he said. After Bt. cotton, now genetically modified brinjal is going to be brought in, Rodriguez said, adding, ”we don’t know what’s next”.