Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 13 August 2013

Gm foods

• The final report of the Supreme Court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on field trials of genetically modified crops is packed with revelations on what is wrong with institutional governance and regulation in India when it comes to GMOs (genetically-modified organisms).

• The report’s release late last month came days before biotech giant Monsanto decided not to submit any further applications for GMOs to the European Union; a decision forced by non-acceptance on scientific grounds and rejection by civil society.

Remarkable consensus

• The TEC Final Report (FR) is the fourth official report which exposes the lack of integrity, independence and scientific expertise in assessing GMO risk.
• It is the third official report barring GM crops or their field trials singularly or collectively. This consensus is remarkable, given the regulatory oversight and fraud that otherwise dog our agri-institutions.
• The pervasive conflict of interest embedded in those bodies makes sound and rigorous regulation of GMOs all but impossible.

• The four reports are: The ‘Jairam Ramesh Report’ of February 2010, imposing an indefinite moratorium on Bt Brinjal, overturning the apex Regulator’s approval to commercialise it; the Sopory Committee Report (August 2012); the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) Report on GM crops (August 2012) and now the TEC Final Report (June-July 2013).

• The TEC recommends that in general, there should be an indefinite stoppage of all open field trials (environmental release) of GM crops, conditional on systemic corrections, including comprehensive and rigorous risk assessment protocols. The report includes a specific focus on Bt food crops.

• It also calls for a ban on the environmental release of any GMO where India is the centre of origin or diversity.
• It also says herbicide tolerant (HT) crops, targeted for introduction by the regulator, should not be open field-tested.
• The TEC “finds them completely unsuitable in the Indian context as HT crops are likely to exert a highly adverse impact over time on sustainable agriculture, rural livelihoods, and environment.”

The PSC report which preceded that of the TEC was no less scathing: it was “ [...] convinced that these

Conflict of interest

• The response to the TEC Final Report came immediately, with the Ministry of Agriculture strongly opposing the report.
• The MoA is a vendor of GM crops and has no mandate for regulating GMOs.

• The same Ministry had lobbied and fought to include an additional member on the TEC after its interim report had been submitted. That ‘new’ member came in with several conflicts of interest, his links to the GM crops lobby being widely known.

First amendment to historic RTI Act tabled

• The Manmohan Singh government introduced the Right to Information (Amendment Bill), 2013 in the Lok Sabha overriding outrage and protests by ordinary users of the law as well as information activists, many of whom inundated the Speaker’s office with appeals and applications urging Meira Kumar to refer the Bill to a select committee.

• The RTI Act was among a slew of rights-based legislation put in place by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its first term.
• Of the package, the RTI law was the most successful, gaining in momentum faster and wider than anyone expected.
• Not only empowering the ordinary citizen, it became the means to unearth scams and scandals of those in power.

• The biggest hit was taken by the very government that created the law. However, thanks to the huge public interest in the preservation of the RTI Act in its original form, the government, despite trying many times over, was unable to push through amendments aimed at curtailing the scope of the law and restricting the flow of official information.

Sources: Various News Papers