Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "Chennai Citizen Connect: Captain Cotton Canal nearly choked due to garbage dumping appearing in the DT Next dated 11.05.2025". The application was registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled Chennai Citizen Connect: Captain Cotton …
The biotechnology industry's annual report "Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops: 2012" by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), which hailed biotechnology as the "fastest adopted crop technology" is facing emerging contentions that it has misrepresented and drastically overestimated its figures. South Africa's genetically modified (GM) …
This study presents the findings of research into the global socio-economic and environmental impact of genetically modified (GM) crops in the sixteen years since they were first commercially planted on a significant area. It focuses on the farm level economic effects, the production effects, the environmental impact resulting from changes …
Strange as it might seem to urbanites, birds don't flock to the cotton fields of Heggadadevanakote. That's mainly because of the invasion of Bt cotton - birds have lost their space, symbolizing the crisis we're facing. Unsustainable technologies are being pushed through, and simple methods backed by traditional knowledge are …
This compilation of scientific papers published by the Coalition for a GM-Free India on 26th March, the 11th anniversary of the official approval of Bt cotton in India showcases mounting evidence on the adverse impacts of transgenic crops/ food on various fronts. This publication is a compilation of numerous scientific …
Global acreage under biotech or genetically modified (GM) crops continued to expand in 2012, but the pace was a bit slow than previous year. Interestingly, for the first time since the introduction of these crops in 1996, the developing countries now have more area under GM crops compared to their …
An infographic on Genetically Modified food. Genetically Modified crops commercialised for nearly 20 years. Industry data indicates a rejection by majority of the countries to adopt this controversial technology. Ninety one percent of global GM production is in USA, Brazil, Argentina, India and Canada. Despite the hype that GM is …
A Vidarbha-like situation is looming over the Marathwada region in Maharashtra where two poor monsoons have taken a toll on the lives of the people. More than 12,000 villages in the region are already struggling with water scarcity and now a famine looks imminent given the extent of crop damage …
Pitching for adoption of modern farm technologies for better yields, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Friday said the government should not get carried away by the “misplaced apprehensions” against scientifically proven developments such as genetically modified (GM) crops. Pawar emphasised that farm output could only be increased by raising crop …
A briefing paper on the myth that GM crops are necessary to feed India’s growing population The introduction of Genetically Modified (GM) crops have kick started a huge controversy across the world which has never been seen before with any other technologies in agriculture. Genetic Engineering as a technology and …
Last week, Greenpeace’s chief in India, Samit Aich, wrote a column in ET on genetically-modified crops. In this, he repeated an old green falsehood, that Bt cotton has failed to raise cotton yields in India. For the truth, consult the government’s Economic Survey 2011-12 (see accompanying graphic). India’s cotton yield …
Across the world, countries are turning their backs on GM crops; perhaps the coalition in the UK could learn something from them Britain wants GM food to be grown commercially. After years of encouraging developing countries in Africa and elsewhere to grow them, but unable to allow its own farmers …
The second Indian Biodiversity Congress (IBC 2012) held at Bangalore earlier this month has called for a ban on field trials of Genetically Modified (GM) crops in India and a 10-year moratorium on Bt food crops. The three-day event, which witnessed a large turnout of scientists, conservationists, environmentalists, civil society …
This paper describes the series of events which took place in India from the development of Bt brinjal to its initial approval by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)a to the declaration of a moratorium on it by the Minister of Environment & Forests and events thereafter. It discusses the …
An indigenous Bt cotton variety Bt Bikaneri Narma developed through a collaborative effort can no more be used for cultivation. A probe conducted by a five-member team, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor S.K. Sopory has termed the development of the strain ‘invalid’. The indigenous cotton variety was jointly developed …
ICAR “shielding errant officials” by delaying the report In a damning indictment of the way some Bt cotton varieties were developed and commercialised in the country, a committee headed by Prof. S.K. Sopory, Vice-Chancellor of JNU, found that indigenous Bikaneri Nerma (BN) Bt cotton variety was contaminated by a gene …
The Indian Society for Cotton Improvement (ISCI) has recently released a comprehensive book on "Bt Cotton Questions & Answers" authored by Dr. K R Kranthi, Director of the ICAR's Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, India. The book has hundred questions on Bt cotton, time and again raised by …
The objection raised by NGOs and other expert panels against Bt cotton have been “speculative, confusing and without any reasonable assessment of technological strength”, Parliament was informed today. Bt cotton is the only transgenic crop approved for commercialisation in the country till date. In a written reply to the Lok …
Dual-use research of concern (DURC) is the research that is intended for legitimate benefits, but also carries a risk of being misused. In this article, the work related to regulation of dual-use influenza virus research involving genetic engineering of the subtype H5N1 has been compared with the research involving regulation …
It will be a blow to Indian science, it says The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) seeking a 10-year moratorium on field trials on Genetically Modified (GM) crops will be highly detrimental and will not be in national interest. …
An open letter sent by nearly a hundred Indian scientists to the Supreme Court. They write in support of the report of the Supreme Court's Technical Expert Committee (TEC) calling for a 10 year moratorium on GM field trials while regulation is put in order. The scientists come from across …
