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 …

The loss of our breeds

Buy an Indian breed from Australia

It’s still open season for bio-piracy

Rich nations block accord on benefit-sharing rules for the world’s genetic resources

Breathing easy

A hundred medicines, a dozen therapies but no cure, that is the story of asthma treatment world wide. Complementary medicine fill the vacuum

Back in f(l)avour

Entry of high yielding hybrid rice has spelt doom for traditional diversity in the Konkan belt. Thanks to a science academy, the ancient legacy …

Gasping millions

Asthma, the bane of modern life, stalks the young ones and the affluent. It will strike 32 million people in India by 2010. The silent strangler …

A sticky label

US biotech industry gears up to play dirty in Europe

Pursuing a nationalist IPR policy

India has enough laws to protect its intellectual property rights. It is the implementation that is wanting

Fruitful deliberations

Two global meetings chart a course for weeding out biopiracy

Natural cotton gets brown hue

Indian scientists develop a variety of coloured cotton, characterised by stability of lint colour, spinnable fibre quality and a fairly good yield

Disclosure-shy industry

Pharma and biotech firms are lobbying hard to block disclosure of origin of genetic material used in inventions, but they also raise thorny issues

In Brief

The Avon lady lifts our biodiversity

Loopholes in the Biological Diversity Act being used to export India’s genetic material

UN heritage status for Odisha's Koraput farming system

Indigenous knowledge and farming practices of the region's tribal people recognised for promoting food security and conserving biodiversity

Curious case of seaweed

AquAgri pays highest sum in royalty but benefits do not reach people

Big step for biocultural rights

The Nagoya Protocol promotes community stewardship of genetic resources. India needs to foster this

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 …

Science and Technology - Briefs

Reluctant funding

Compromise on resources salvages CBD conference; marine protection gets big boost

Trail of a $500 m gene

How a rare African algae collected by a French academic turns into a commercial bonanza for an equity firm in Hong Kong. Are there any benefits …

The hunt for benefits

India is hailed as a pioneer in implementing the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity—fair and equitable sharing of …