In a setback to the genetically modified cotton boom, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has denied permission for large-scale trials (LST) of five Bt hybrids/varieties developed by the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), citing the Supreme Court’s May 8 order. The Nagpur-based institute, affiliated to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), had sought to undertake large-scale trials and seed production of four cotton hybrids (NHH-44, DBt-H1, DBt-H2 and Dbt-H5) and one variety (Bikaneri Nerma), incorporating the cry1Ac gene isolated from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).

In view of the recent controversy over genetic contamination, owing to field trials and commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in the country, the science and technology ministry has offered to resolve the issue. It would work with the agriculture ministry in formulating standards for genetic contamination of various crops.

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has permitted large-scale field trials of genetically modified (GM) food crops in the country but with certain restrictions. The varieties have been developed by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and Mahyco. The field trials of several varieties of Bt brinjal — the first food crop in the country — will be carried out in research farms at specified locations and not in the private fields.

On August 1, Aruna Rodrigues and her co-petitioners' Public Interest Litigation could once again be back before India's Supreme Court with the Government of India, on bahalf of the GM regulators - the GEAC - arguing for a dilution of the restrictions that the Court has already placed on GM crop trials. In the press release below, the petitioners draw attention to the open alliance between the GEAC and industry-backed GM lobbyists. In particular, they call for the sacking of the GEAC's co-chairman.

AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity (APCDD), representing civil society groups against genetically modified crops, has challenged the recent Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM)’s survey report on Bt cotton farming and termed it ”incredulous.” At a press conference here on Monday, P.V. Satheesh, convenor of the APCDD, said the survey was part of a huge campaign launched by the genetic engineering industry to bamboozle public opinion. The seed major, Monsanto has produced 29 short films to counter the APCDD’s film, ”A disaster in search of success: Bt cotton in global south”, he added.

And, since June 2005, more than 5,000 farmers pathetically killed themselves all over India, leaving their wives and children in worse financial doldrums. The death tolls tell a poignant story of how Indian farmers succumb to free trade competition that has destroyed their revered economic lifeline -- cotton farming -- with cotton prices dipping in the global market while highly subsidised farmers from rich nations corner cotton trade, leaving Third World widows in grim villages.

This year the fifth anniversary of Bt cotton commercialization in India, and a look back at the road it has traversed; it can be best described as a success with serious public relations deficit. If one were to believe all the ghastly stories of how Bt cotton has brought doom to the lives of poor farmers in India, then one might as well blame all natural disasters in India on this ”dreadful” Bt cotton. Certainly, the anti-GM lobby in India does everything possible, on a daily basis to discredit and disparage agricultural biotechnology, and get lots of traction in the media that does not care to verify facts.

When the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Vidarbha last July, the Vidarbha farmers hoped bad days were coming to end, their destiny would change. Skeptics had warned the region’s agrarian economy, which has collapsed totally, could not be resurrected with piecemeal packages. They were right. The relief is turning out to be a mere band-aid, as it indeed was meant, with policies remaining unchanged on all fronts – credit, seeds, prices and imports, to name a few. But, as the fresh sowing season starts, worrying signs are already evident. Beleaguered cotton farmers, already steeped in debt, have little choice but to opt for the more-expensive Bt (genetically modified) cotton this season.

After Uttarakhand, Kerala has said a firm no to Genetically Modified (GM) seeds test in the state. Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran has conveyed the government stand in this regard in a letter to Federal Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. He has urged the federal minister to declare the state as ’GM-free zone’. He said that the government would not allow the current move to permit a Maharashtra-based firm to do experimental cultivation of GM seeds in the northern district of Palghat, which is known as the rice bowl of Kerala.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., India’s biggest drugmaker, is developing eight generic medicines using biotechnology and plans to release one for sale a year, challenging companies such as Roche Holding NV and Amgen Inc. Reddy’s may double the number of people in its biotech division to about 340 in the next two years and plans to spend about $20 million bolstering production capacity there, Chief Executive Officer G.V. Prasad said yesterday. [...] Reddy’s, which had sales of $1.42 billion in the year ended March 31, generates less than 5 percent of revenue from biotech drugs. Biotechnology, or the use of cellular material to make medicines, may contribute as much as 30 percent to revenue within a decade as the company starts selling Reditux outside India and patents on other biologics expire, allowing Reddy’s to copy them.