AFTER GUNNING for American seed major Monsanto and its Indian subsidiary Mahyco for violating the Biological Diversity Act in the Bt Brinjal case, the Karnataka State Bio-diversity Board has decide

India has become the testing ground for a whole range of GM crops. These include paddy, wheat, maize, mustard, okra even as testing for the controversial Bt brinjal continues.

Testing is being done by private universities, private crop developers and the National Agricultural Research System all of whom are testing these crops often without the consent of state governments, including Bihar, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, who have openly expressed their reservations on GM crops.

Companies that sell vegetable seeds to farmers have come under the scanner in Maharashtra following a rise in complaints about dud seeds.

Mahyco confident of regulatory approvals, plans launch within a year.

Bt brinjal may have gone into the deep freezer, but that has hardly dampened the enthusiasm of Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Co (Mahyco) from coming up with new genetically modified (GM) crops.

Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company) will have to wait for one more year to launch Bt cottonseeds with Roundup Ready Flex (RRF) technology as Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) aske

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.

New Delhi Since the introduction of genetically modified (GM) cotton crop, which accounts more than 90% in the total area under cotton in the country, there has been a fear of genetic erosion and loss of biodiversity, a group of reputed cotton breeders have expressed.

While acknowledging the fact that after introduction of GM cotton seeds in 2002 the country