The demands of global capital, mediated through the market, are increasingly driving the trajectory of advances in science. Today this acts as the principal barrier to the advance of science as a knowledge system that is designed to serve the needs of the people. The needs of a neo-liberal economic order valorises immediate gain as the principal driver of science.

The Bt brinjal debate has featured technological worries relating to genetically modified crops, which appear relatively minor in comparison to the critical issue of who controls Indian agriculture and therefore who controls food security in India.

Choosing a low-carbon path, as the government seems to be committing itself to at the negotiations, will impose huge costs on India.

This study is founded on the essential fact of climate science, that restricting carbon dioxide emissions to tolerable levels is essential to avoid the drastic and irreversible consequences of a global increase in temperatures beyond 2