Haven146;t cottoned on

India8217;s GM regulation isn8217;t equipped for the coming flood of new applications

With India poised to become the world8217;s second largest cotton producer, as reported in this newspaper, thanks largely to higher yields from genetically modified cotton, the most important follow-up question to this good news is why are the chances of more breakthroughs being held back by bureaucratic infighting. The department of science and technology and the environment ministry have been battling for months over whose nominee should head the proposed national biotechnology regulatory authority. This body, recommended by the M.S. Swaminathan task force, is to function as a single window for preliminary approval, research evaluation and final clearance, taking care of inter-ministerial wrangles that characterise the current three-stage process. It is surprising there has been no top-of-the-government intervention as yet to sort out this bureaucratic turf battle.

The surprise is greater because India, unlike, say Europe, has a fairly rational GM policy. Of course there have been examples of

unnecessary obfuscation by government regulators, which is also one of the reasons Swaminathan advocated a single-window system. But overall, India8217;s GM policy has been a reasonably good mixture of positive attitude to new technology and abundant caution while testing it. That the government has set up a special committee that will evaluate independent assessments of field trials for Bt brinjal 8212; the reason is that Bt brinjal, if cleared, will be India8217;s first GM food crop 8212; is one example of cautious policy. On the other hand, the system of event based clearance 8212; this means once a GM crop from one party has been cleared, other parties planning to employ the same variety need not seek approval 8212; shows policymakers have learnt flexibility.

But this government, which says farming is a high priority, should consider itself warned: its current GM regulation is equipped neither to efficiently handle the flood of applications coming India8217;s way 8212; GM tomato and golden rice, among others 8212; nor to manage the resultant high intensity NGO activism.