Jorhat, Nov. 21: The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, is planning to apply shockwave technology to the tea industry, which scientists feel could bring about a revolution.

With the Centre strongly favouring the genetically modified (GM) crops, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to impose an interim ban on their field trials, despite the court-appointed expert committee recommending the ban.

The government pleaded that recommendation of the apex court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) for banning field trials of the GM crops be rejected as the use of biotechnology in agriculture can bring second green revolution in the country.

The government has opposed suggestions to ban open-field trials of genetically modified crops, telling the Supreme Court on Friday that any such move will be detrimental to the country’s food secur

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. “Based on current overall status of food safety evaluation of Bt. Transgenics, including the data on Bt. Cotton and Bt. Brinjal examined by the TEC, and in accordance with the precautionary principle, the TEC recommends a 10-year moratorium on field trials of Bt. Transgenics in all food crops,” the TEC said in its interim report submitted to the Supreme Court. “Another factor is the possibility of contamination of non-GM food by GM food.”

The SC must reject the biased interim report of the committee on GE crops

The TEC was appointed to address certain issues related to agricultural biotechnology in India

Perceiving a grim picture, scientists at the weekend referred to the recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court as taking the country in the opposite direction, halting the progress required to cater to the growing needs of the country. The TEC was appointed to address certain issues related to agricultural biotechnology in India

The prime minister's scientific advisory council had advocated introduction of GM crops in India, but under strict regulatory mechanism

Even as the Supreme Court is set to hear the petition to ban testing of genetically modified (GM) crops on October 29, the apex body that is supposed to regulate GM crops in the country, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), has been in limbo since April when it last met. The GEAC was last reconstituted in June 2009 for three years. Since its tenure ended in June, the committee has neither been reconstituted nor its tenure extended. According to senior scientists, this has severely harmed the progress made in field testing and research of new crop varieties.