Biotech industry has a new patron
Department of Biotechnology is playing venture capitalist to private companies to push biotech research in agriculture
All the way to Brazil to find Vidarbha cotton solution
Government takes seven years to admit Bt cotton has failed in Vidarbha and return to Desi varieties
Jungle raj
CAG memo shows IFS officers are administering country’s premier forestry research body like a fiefdom
Scientists’ panel to add new member for report on GM field trials
Weeks after expert committee recommended moratorium Supreme Court agrees to agriculture ministry's request to add new member to panel
Rogue GM crops wreak havoc
Monsanto’s unauthorised GM wheat in the US has spooked the world, but contamination is widespread
Indefinite moratorium on GM field trials recommended
Supreme Court’s expert panel of scientists for ban on herbicide tolerant crops for India
Indefinite ban on GM field trials recommended
Supreme Court’s expert panel of scientists also against herbicide-tolerant crops for India
Dealing with crop stresses and scandals
Subbanna Ayyappan has made history in the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (IACR) by becoming the first non-crop scientist to head this …
Linkage between science and public policy has weakened
M S Swaminathan, popularly known as the father of India’s Green Revolution, has been associated with national agricultural research system (…
Private sector is profiting from vacuum left by ICAR
In the agriculture research hierarchy, Swapan Kumar Datta occupies the second rung, one of eight deputy director generals (DDGs) in the Indian …
A plant breeder comes into his own
Awards are finally coming to K Vinod Prabhu, 54, a plant breeder, for his work on building resistance in wheat, mustard and rice through the …
‘Stopping GM trials is anti-farmer’
Genetically modified (GM) mustard hybrid DMH-11 developed by Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants ran into …
Science under siege
Agricultural science has ossified in India. Despite a vast network of public research institutions and agriculture universities across the country,…
Organic Universe
Organic is all the rage. Organic food, cosmetics, clothes and even organic medicines. But mostly it is food. There are speciality stores that …