A new research program is being supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and Vibha Agrotech Limited to apply transgenic technologies to enhance environmental stress tolerance in cereal crops. The research is part of the US government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future. The collaboration will combine ACPFG’s gene systems and technologies with the field evaluation and rice transformation capabilities of Vibha. A series of transgenic wheat and rice lines will be developed that show enhanced tolerance to drought and salinity stresses.

Agricultural products contributed around 9% of the total of over $400 billion worth of goods exported from India last year. [...] Last year, we exported 9.75 million tonnes of rice, of which around three million tonnes was the premium basmati variety. [...] Europe accounts for just 3% of the total basmati exported from India. More than 70% of our exports go to Gulf countries, which have to get their supplies from India to meet their full requirement. [...] they do not even mandate labelling of food items for GM ingredients. Analysis shows that more than 96% of our basmati exports are to such countries that will not be affected by allowing GM rice trials.

The illegal sale of the latest variant of genetically modified cotton seeds across Vidarbha before an expert committee’s approval has caused alarm among farmers in the region and anti-GM activists across India. Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB) India’s Bollgard II Roundup Ready Flex (BGII RRF) hasn’t got the approval of the Union ministry of environment and forests’ Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). “GEAC has not given its nod to BGII RRF. Selling or using it even when trials go on is wholly illegal,” said panel chairperson Dr BS Parsheera.

the Ministry of Science and Technology drafted the NBRA Bill. But it was soon withdrawn following severe criticism during public consultation. In 2009, the ministry drafted another version of the Bill, this time titled Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill. Contents of the draft were kept under wraps. In February 2010, the science ministry suffered a setback when the environment minister imposed a moratorium on Bt Brinjal and other GM crops in the country. This started a silent war within the government. There was discomfort in the Prime Minister’s Office too. But with the UPA term ending in 2014, a communication came from PMO to the science ministry, asking it to speed up the process of tabling the Bill.

Widows of farmers who committed suicide in the Bt-cotton fields of Maharashtra-Vidarbha, along with tribal and agriculturists, are gearing up to intensify their agitation against the introduction of GM seeds into the food crops. [...] Last week, a state-appointed committee headed by Atomic Energy Commission -Member-Dr Anil Kakodkar quietly met at the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, deliberating over proposals submitted by 29 seed companies seeking no-objection certificate for carrying out field tests of GM food crops in Maharashtra. The secrecy-filled meeting with members of the committee refusing to furnish details has invited wrath from environmentalists, ecologists and farmland activists.

The Association of Biotech-Led Enterprises - Agriculture Group (ABLE AG) - the industry body representing agri-biotechnology companies, has sought action from the Minister of Environment & Forest Jayanthi Natarajan and the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee to permit field trials of biotechnology-enhanced seeds in the kharif season sowing, which is already under way, for continued R&D efforts by private and public sector institutions. [...] Member companies of ABLE AG are Advanta India, BASF India, Bayer BioScience, Devgen Seeds, Dow AgroSciences, JK Agri Genetics, Mahyco, MetaHelix, Monsanto, Nath Biogene, PHI Seeds and Syngenta India. Some of them have R&D centres in Bangalore while others are associated with Karnataka for purposes of transgenic crop trials.

Has the government mislead the Supreme Court in constitution of a court’s committee on genetically modified crops? Appears so, as one of the government nominees has a clear ‘conflict of interest’ in promoting GM crops as the organisations, he heads, has received money from multi-national biotech companies. [...] What the ministry failed to inform the court was Paroda’s administrative role in two organizations, having received funding from biotech major Monsanto and its Indian associates for running different programmes. Monsanto was not available for comments.

Reacting strongly to state agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s admission that the genetically modified Bt cotton had brought no benefits to the farmers but on the other hand seed companies were thriving on it, Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said that time has come to at least stop the introduction of GM seeds in food crops. “Around 5 million people in Maharashtra depend on cotton cultivation that is done in 41 lakh hectares. Now, the state government has finally admitted that Bt cotton is adding to farmers’ distress even as 95% of them are using the MG seeds. The question now is who will bell the cat? Is there no way to stop the onslaught of GM seeds,” asked Tiwari.

Anti-genetically modified food groups on Wednesday announced a campaign against the Government’s move to promote “iron fortified” GM bananas to save Indian women from anaemia. As part of the campaign, an online petition opposing the move has been initiated by Navdanya, Mahila Anna Swaraj, Diverse Women for Diversity, Initiative for Health & Equity in Society, Guild of Services, Save Honey Bees Campaign, etc. At a press conference here on Wednesday, Navdanya founder, Vandana Shiva, even questioned the credibility of James Dale of Queensland University, who was being funded by Gates Foundation for “innovation” in GM bananas.

Even before the debate on the safety regime on genetically modified food crops has been settled in India, there are now new challenges with GM fruit in the pipeline. This time it is with the banana, supposedly modified at the genetic level in the laboratories of Australia being shipped to India. But this is not simply about an Oz connection. The Australian Queensland University of Technology signed a deal with the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology in August 2012 which is to run for six years. Professor James Dale, Director of Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, heads the project at QUT.