Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw supports GM crop technology

Bangalore: Opposing the GM (Genetically Modified) crop technology would take the country on a wrong path, Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said on Saturday.

"I am here to express my solidarity with scientists and support to biotechnology. Innovations happen only through research and experimentation. No one has a right to ban research and experimentation," she said here at a meet of biotechnologists and farm scientists.

The meet, which also included heads of agri biotech industry, was organised in protest of the recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court of India (SCI).

The Supreme Court appointed five-member Technical Expert Committee on GM crops has recommended a 10-year moratorium on all field trials of GM crops.

"Those who oppose scientific research are not intellectually right and would take the country on a wrong path. Science and technology have done a lot to the country," Mazumdar-Shaw added.

Bangalore-based Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) Executive Secretary C Kameswara Rao said that the report submitted to the Supreme Court seems to rely entirely on the views of a select group of scientists and activists who oppose agribiotech, ignoring all the others.

"The Indian farmers have to produce enough to meet the needs of growing population, without enlarging arable land or irrigation facilities in a fast changing climate," he added.

Earlier this month, the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises-Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG), an association body of leading biotech companies in India, had said that the report by the Supreme court appointed committee on GM crops lacks focus and a balanced scientific analysis.

PTI