A month away from the first public consultation on Bt brinjal, at least six state governments have now openly started talking against the Centre’s decision to release the first genetically modified food crop to farmers and have decided against implementing it. The state governments that have openly spoken against the Centre’s decision are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Orissa.

In what appears to be a massive cover-up operation for the scientific swindle perpetrated in the case of the controversial approval granted by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee to India’s first poisonous food crop -- Bt brinjal, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh is now trying to legitimise the fraud.

A month away from the first public consultation on Bt brinjal, at least six state governments have now openly started talking against the Centre’s decision to release the first genetically modified food crop to farmers and have decided against implementing it. The state governments that have openly spoken against the Centre’s decision are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Orissa.

Noted scientist and founder of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, P.M. Bhargava, has called for a moratorium of at least eight years on genetically modified (GM) food products in India.

Scientists at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University at Hisar Saturday claimed to have developed Bt chickenpea (gram) on the lines of Bt cotton. [...] ”The university has filed for patent of the protocol used in development of the GM (genetically modified) crop,” he said.

Well, this is the story of the duo -- Dr Ron Herring (from Cornell) and Dr Shantu Shantaram -- doing the rounds across the country on behalf of the GM industry. [...] much of what transpired at the conference was pro-GM propaganda. Such was the extent of the bias that any difficult question from the audience invited the wrath of the speakers whose effort was to silence the questioner in a quelling and patronizing manner.

The Coalition for GM-free India alleged the expert committee that cleared the genetically modified brinjal for commercial cultivation in the country was neither impartial nor thorough. [...] What gave grounds for the allegation is the fact that over a period of time a third of the committee members have been in some way associated with either the seed company Mahyco that developed Bt brinjal or pro-Mahyco organizations.

Scientists [...] said the genetically modified vegetable was not only safe for consumption but also more profitable for the farmers. Scientists from across the country are taking part in the seminar which has been jointly organised by the All India Crop Biotechnology Association, Environment Resource Research Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, and Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education at Bangalore.

American farmers and food product maker lose millions of dollars each year in lost sales to India because of high tariffs and non-tariff measures, which raise the cost or prohibit agricultural exports to the country, an official US report has said. [...] Indian IPR policies are reportedly of importance to the US seed firms operating in the Asian nation India, but the American firms in most other agricultural sectors do not identify IPR as a significant trade or investment barrier.

The world’s largest seed and farm input company, Monsanto, is scouting for a new business model. While BT cotton seeds have to be bought every year, farmers can save soya, rice and wheat seeds. This poses a tricky problem. Executive vice-president (strategy) and chief financial officer Carl Casale tells ET why collaboration may be the best way to make sure the $12-billion giant gets paid for its new products in India.