BRAI bill: a threat to our food and farming - a legal assessment of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), bill 2011
Greenpeace India launched a legal assessment report of the the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI),bill 2011. The report `BRAI Bill: A threat to our food and farming’ analyses the various inadequacies within the bill that threatens the safety of our food, health and biodiversity. Neither the preamble to the bill nor the statement of the objects and reason explain how the new authority would be better than the existing system and why changes cannot be made in the existing one. In compliance with the Cartagena protocol, India is under an obligation to ensure that its domestic laws are according to the provisions of the protocol. It appears from the preamble of the Bill that it adopts an adaptive approach, instead the main focus of the bill should be the prevention of risks associated with modern biotechnology. The legal assessment also highlights the conflict of interest as the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science and Technology has proposed the BRAI bill and their mandate clearly mentions the promotion of the biotechnology in the country.