Counter affidavit on behalf of Chief Municipal Engineer, Patna Nagar Nigam in the matter of Saurav Narayan Vs Bihar Pollution Control Board & Others dated May 20, 2025. The report said that the corporation has been diligently performing its statutory duties within the limitations of the available resources and infrastructure. …
around 10,000 years ago, farmers from the Middle East carried civilisation with them to Europe, reveals a recent genetic analysis. It makes it clear that new agrarian technologies were not purely a spread of ideas, but a mass movement of people who settled and mixed with hunter-gatherers of Europe. The …
using genetic code as the recipe and carbon-containing chemicals as the ingredients, researchers have recently recreated the polio virus. The feat is significant, as it is for the first time that a working biological entity has been synthesised. Moreover, the achievement is a step towards creating life in laboratories
In a major blow to the us biotech industry, the European parliament recently approved one of the world’s most stringent regulations on labelling of genetically modified organisms (gmo). The parliament has also decided to retain the ongoing moratorium on the import of numerous gm products till the regulation comes into …
A compromise has been made to stave off starvation. Although Zambia initially rejected genetically modified (gm) maize in food aid, it has now asked the World Food Programme (wfp) to buy the cheaper gm corn to feed its people. In June Zambian agriculture minister Mundia Sikatana had banned imports of …
ANDHRA Pradesh, the state where more than 500 farmers committed suicide after a failed crop in 1998, is now set to officially explore the commercial viability of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton. Earlier this year, in March, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) cleared the commercial use of Bt cotton. Mahyco-Monsanto …
Pollen from genetically modified (gm) crops can travel at least three kilometres to contaminate neighbouring crops, according to a study. The study, by researchers from Australia-based University of Adelaide, followed the spread of genes from a new herbicide-resistant variety of GM oilseed rape introduced in Australia two years ago. It …
Genetically modified pink bollworms (Pectinophora gossypiella) have been released recently for the first time in a secret location in the cotton fields of Arizona. The bollworms have been modified by US scientists to be sterile so that they can mate with natural bollworms, which will not produce any offspring. Although …
has the time come for paper and pulp industry to go green? If one is to go by the latest research on genetically modified trees, perhaps yes. Scientists have tested genetically modified (gm) poplar trees and given them thumbs up for their regular use. Using gm poplar trees, they claim, …
the World Food Summit, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (fao) and held in Rome from June 10-13, failed to secure an enhanced commitment to its goal of reducing the number of hungry people from 800 million to 400 million by 2015. What it could just do was to …
There were quite a few adherents to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at the World Food Summit. The treaty defines plant genetic resources as any genetic material of plant origin of actual or potential value for food and agriculture. India ratified the pact along …
The United Nations has been condemned by Guatemalan environmental activists for distributing genetically engineered corn to drought-hit farmers in the Central American nation through its World Food Programme (wfp). Environmental group Madre Selva said us laboratory tests on a sack of un-distributed corn it acquired in eastern Guatemala detected genetically …
the recent study conducted by China's Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences and global environmental group Greenpeace, which claimed that Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton causes damage to the environment, has no takers in the country. While Chinese biotechnology researchers have unanimously rejected most of the views expressed in the report, some …
Approximately 80 per cent of all calories consumed in the world come from genomes that are similar to rice. The fact that the rice genome is relatively small, and the availability of modern efficient genetic transformation techniques, have enabled rice scientists to explore this grass in depth. An essential aspect …
Over the past couple of decades, agricultural research has seen increasing involvement of the private sector in what was almost exclusively the preserve of public-funded institutions. With research taking place in the public sector, there was no problem with sharing technology. The spread of the Green Revolution technology is a …
The publication of two rice genome sequences could not have come at a better time. With the human genome project meeting its targets ahead of time, genomics in general is looming large on the horizon, waiting to dominate the scene completely. The rice genome project is to agriculture research what …
Rice is the staple food for much of the third world. Needless to say, improvement in its yield and quality would go a long way towards establishing food security. To know and understand its genome structure and function is the first step that the scientific community is taking in this …
scientists have checked the bite of the mosquito. They have successfully inserted into the anopheles mosquitoes an artificial gene that renders the insects incapable of transmitting the malaria parasite. Preliminary findings of this experiment, conducted by researchers from the Ohio-based Case Western Reserve University, suggest that such genetically engineered mosquitoes …
scientists have recently discovered the 22nd amino acid, the building blocks of proteins that carry out the functions of a living cell. This is a significant discovery that would enable scientists to manipulate the human genetic code to make proteins to speed chemical reactions. The amino acid was discovered by …
