following the detection of antibiotic residues in shrimps exported from India in 2002, the government seems to be making a concerted effort to rectify the situation. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (mpeda), a body that comes under the Union ministry of commerce, has recently taken several initiatives to protect the Rs 6,000-crore Indian seafood exports industry. One such measure is the investment of Rs 17.5 crore by mpeda to upgrade Indian laboratories so that they conform to European standards. It is in these labs that checks are conducted for detecting antibiotic residues.

Since September 2002, when the European Commission (ec) placed Indian shrimp imports on the watch-list, the Indian seafood sector has been under immense pressure (see: [2]