I still can’t overcome my disbelief. Such ’distinguished’ scientific bodies, and such a shoddy report. I have always said there is good science, there is bad science but this report transgresses all earlier known brackets, and I have no hesitation in saying that the Inter-Academy Report on GM crops does not even qualify to be put in the category of bad science. It is Gutter Science.

Endorsing views of an advocacy group that alleged that the report was plagiarised, Mr Ramesh said, “I had asked the academics to give the broader scientific view. But it is nothing else but the views of one scientist (Anand Kumar) which I had already kno wn much before the moratorium was placed on the release of the Bt brinjal.” Clearly unhappy over the report which he had sought from the country’s leading academic institutes, the Minister said, “I do not want the six top science academics to tell me Anand Kumar’s view. I already know that.”

Indian scientists have genetically modified the world’s most popular vegetable to make it more nutritious. ”Potato is a staple food in many countries,” Subhra Chakraborty, one of the researchers, told HT. ”But the problem is that it does not have much protein.” Scientists at the New Delhi-based National Institute of Plant Genome Research took a gene from the edible amaranth plant and introduced the gene to seven commercial varieties of potatoes.

The battle over royalty charged from farmers for genetically modified cotton seeds fought out in the AP High Court by the Indian subsidiary of the seed multinational Monsanto is another case in point. Currently, two-thirds of the money charged for every packet of Bt Cotton seeds sold to farmers is collected as royalty or trait fees. [...] Never mind the fact that [...] eleven farmers in Andhra Pradesh will commit suicide today because they are unable to pay their debts.

Consumer goods company Dabur and KRBL, which makes the India Gate brand of rice, are the most consumer responsible companies, according to a Greenpeace report. Greenpeace released a Safe Food Guide today in which it has rated the top 25 most popular food companies according to their policy on genetically-modified (GM) food.

The Environment Ministry - which had been at the centre of a major controversy earlier this year following its decision to put the introduction of a genetically-modified variety of brinjal on indefinite hold - may still be able to exercise a lot of control in the proposed new regulatory framework for approval and use of biotechnology products in the country. [...] The final approval on commercialisation of a product will have to be granted [...] by either Agriculture Ministry, or Environment Ministry, or Health Ministry.

India’s apex biotech regulator, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, has censured a government research lab conducting experiments to develop genetically modified chicken for violating key environmental laws. [...] On 30 July, in a notification just made public, GEAC ruled that the poultry lab didn’t have a biosafety committee and also hadn’t informed the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, a gatekeeper body that approves large-scale trials involving GM products, of their experiments.

An estimated 200,000 farmers in India have committed suicide in the past 13 years, or, roughly one every thirty minutes. These farmers, immersed in crippling debt, are taking their own lives, leaving their families grief-stricken and with even less resources. “Vidarbha, known as the cotton belt of India, is more recently known as the ‘suicide belt’.” Lata Sharma, director of Navdanya Mumbai, an NGO promoting organic farming and farmers rights told MediaGlobal. “The epidemic of farmers’ suicides is the real measurement of the stress under which Indian agriculture and Indian farmers have been put by policies of neglect and indifference.”

Kerala Minister for Agriculture Mullakkara Retnakaran has expressed strong reservations about the Biotechnology Regulatory Bill approved by the Union Cabinet recently. [...] the Bill sought to curtail freedom of expression and punish anyone who records any view against introduction of any genetically modified crop or food.

The evolution of Bt created additional value worth Rs 40,000 cr until 2008

Bt cotton has surpassed 90 per cent of cotton acreage this kharif season with farmers continuing to gain from the high-yielding seed since its commercialisation in 2002. [...] India’s cotton sowing area has increased substantially over the last three years to 110 lakh ha this kharif season, from 103 lakh ha and 98 lakh ha in 2009 and 2008, respectively. Ashok Damji Daga, a Coimbatore-based cotton trader, attributed this growth to a significant rise in the minimum support price and higher yield in the area under Bt seed.