The minister of environment and forests, Jayanthi Natarajan, informed the Rajya Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament that the ministry of agriculture and the government’s regulatory body, called the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, have been telling the apex regulatory body for GM organisms, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, to do away with the requirement for state government clearance before trials on GM crops can be conducted in a particular state. This is blatant indeed. Government agencies are telling the top regulatory body to dilute its rules to benefit the seed industry. The seed industry is naturally lobbying for this dilution because the more lax the rules and regulations, the better off they are. But why is the agriculture ministry and the RCGM lobbying for the seed industry’s benefit?