In this paper, assess the impacts of genetically modified eggplant, Bt brinjal, on economic and health outcomes in Bangladesh using a cluster randomized controlled design. Bt brinjal cultivation reduces the cost of pesticide use by 47 percent. This is driven by reductions in the use of pesticides with adverse ecological …
With the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill (BRAI) expected to be tabled in Lok Sabha during the monsoon session, there are hectic parleys going outside the Parliament. On one hand the biotech industry with support from government scientists are pitching for the release of Bt brinjal while anti-GM activists …
Delhiites join Greenpeace to oppose the proposed ‘GM-friendly' biotechnology Bill Greenpeace members were joined by Delhiites at Dilli Haat near INA Market here on Tuesday morning to cook a record-breaking GM-free baingan ka bharta to oppose the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2011. The cooking was part of a …
Eminent city scientists on Tuesday made a plea to the Prime Minister to lift the moratorium on commercial production of Bt Brinjal and called it absolutely safe for human consumption. Scientists were drawn from Government institutions, including Indian Agriculture Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture; Department of Biotechnology, Government of India; …
New Delhi: It was a grand lunch fit to feed an army. Chefs from Le Meridien, Indian Institute of Hotel Management and Indian Culinary Forum prepared two mammoth containers of mouth-watering, traditional Punjabi style ‘B a i g a n k a B h a r t a.’ What made …
Greenpeace activists, with assistance from chefs of Le Meridien and students of the International Institute of Hotel Management, today prepared 342.5 kg of organic baingan bharta (eggplant dish), the largest amount of the dish ever cooked in the world. The event, held at Dilli Haat in south Delhi, was a …
The probability of crop-to-wild gene flow depends on the geographic distribution of crops and their wild relatives. In this context, caution has been advised in relation to the release of transgenic crops into their centres of origin, i.e. the geographical regions in which they were domesticated, and where wild relatives …
The diversity of opinions that debates about Bt brinjal have generated over the last year (for example, see refs 1–8) has contributed to the haziness of the future of the variety. This note attempts to collate the opinions of various scientists in the hope that some clarity may emerge if …
Genetically Engineered/Modified (GE/GM) crops are organisms created artificially in labs by forcibly inserting genes of unrelated organisms into the genetic structure of the plant. Genetically engineered crops are unpredictable in their character and the plants once released in the environment are uncontrollable and can never be taken back. www.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/report/brai%20%20critique.pdf
The BRAI Bill is a blatant attempt to bulldoze through the public resistance and genuine concerns about Genetically Modified crops, and to deny state governments their Constitutional authority over Agriculture and Health, said the Coalition for a GM-Free India in its reaction to the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India 2011 …
The BT brinjal case just got murkier. Government’s National Biodiversity Authority has decided to take legal action against Mayhco and Monsanto for using Indian varieties of the vegetable without mandatory permissions. The authority, meant to govern use of Indian genetic resources by business and research groups, decided in its meeting …
The National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) says it may initiate legal action against Mahyco, a partner of biotech giant Monsanto, and their collaborators for accessing and using local brinjal (eggplant) varieties to develop the genetically modified (GM) or Bt Brinjal without the prior approval of the authorities. The decision …
The development of Bt brinjal was a case of bio-piracy, according to the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). According to sources, the NBA has finally concluded its year-long investigation and recommended action against the U.S. agri-business giant Monsanto and its Indian collaborators who developed and promoted the controversial, genetically modified vegetable. …
Over a year after bio-piracy complaints against U.S.-based multinational Monsanto — with regard to Bt brinjal — reached the National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA), the investigation is still continuing. However, when Monsanto sent in its application to use Indian onion strains for hybrid research last month, the Authority promptly …
New Delhi More than a year after former environment minister Jairam Ramesh put an indefinite moratorium on commercial introduction of Bt brinjal in the country, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has asked for additional tests on the ayurvedic qualities of the genetically modified brinjal. GEAC has asked Maharashtra Hybrid …
Transgenics or GE/GM crops are one of the oft-used tools of modern biotechnology, deployed in our food and farming systems. Genetically Modified (GM) or Genetically Engineered (GE) crops are created unnaturally by inserting genes, taken usually from alien organisms like bacteria, viruses, animals and other unrelated plants, for obtaining certain …
The activists opposing the commercialization of Bt brinjal have asserted that Bt brinjal would seriously affect the use of brinjal in the Alternative and Complementary Systems of Medicine (ACSM) in India, through ‘loss of synergy’. The then Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India (GoI), repeatedly echoed this …
The opposition to BT brinjal has partly arisen because some Solanum species are widely used in Indian medicine. According to Prof. C Kamswara Rao of the Foundation of Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE), Bangalore, he clarifies in a recent book that brinjal is not a medicinal plant; rather, Solanum medicines …
Drawing on the literature on controversies, especially on the health risk assessment of genetically modified organisms in Europe, and long-standing debates in science and technology studies, this article argues that science-based risk assessment has inherent limitations, however rigorous, independent, and peer reviewed the work may be. In this context, the …
New Delhi With the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) making it mandatory for the agri bio-tech companies to get no-objection certificate (NOC) from the states prior to the launch of any trial of GM crops has been termed as ‘regressive’ by a consortium Association of Bio-tech Led Enterprises - Agriculture …
A loss for environment is a gain for rural development. That's how an environmental activist responded on hearing news of shifting of Mr Jairam Ramesh from the Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Rural Development. Hated by corporates and liked by quite a few environmental activists, Mr Jairam Ramesh's …
