The past month has brought quite a few changes in my daily schedule, and hence I have been falling behind on my posts. I travelled more than 3000 km in the beginning of the month, attended a wedding near the fabled City of Lakes in Rajasthan and was sicker than a dog for quite some time.   My odyssey on trains is not yet over, as within the next few days I will be again travelling roughly the same distance. I was also filling up quite a number of forms and collating documents and when you do things like  that quite often, the time needed for critical thinking, research and introspection becomes a matter of luxury. You just can’t write straight, and I am sure it shows here too.

In the past month when I have not been blogging, the most important thing concerning India was the open ended    moratorium on the introduction of genetically modified Bt brinjal. While it might not sound earth shattering, this decision was significant because it was taken due to strong public pressure. In fact, the Environment Minister stated that the moratorium will continue until public trust has been fully established on the safety of GM crops in India.

Understandably several scientists and the seed companies are unhappy with the decision. However the fact remains that the safety testing process was flawed and the initial decision to grant approval to these crops were based on test results conducted by the seed companies, which naturally created a conflict of interest.  Also, as eminent agricultural scientists have pointed out, the tests themselves are incomplete- for example gene flow studies, or in other words what would happen if the Bt gene jumps from the brinjal plant to weeds in the field have not been done. Here is an excellent article pointing out these lacunae in the testing process. Moves are afoot by the Agriculture and the Science and Technology ministers to overturn the moratorium. The final decision now rests with the PM, but I hope for the sake of public health and food securtiy he agrees to hold off until more conclusive and objective tests are conducted.

In other news the clinate change deal stitched at the last minute in Copenhagen has run into trouble as countries like India and China are objecting to efforts by the EU to supplant the Kyoto Protocol with this deal. They contend, with good reason that when they signed this deal there was no such assumption. Apparently a lot of strongly worded letters have been exchanged between the PMO in New Delhi and the UNFCC secreteriat at Bonn. China and India have not associated with the accord yet but they have submitted plans to the secreteriat to reduce emissions and national goals have already been set.

This in itself means nothing, as none of these are legally binding. My guess is that all eyes are on the West, especially on Obama as he attempts to create a consensus on the US Climate bill. If he manages it, the next COP at Mexico City might have better chances than Copenhagen.

I would also like to end this short post by I won’t be posting anytime soon as I apprehend a big round of travel coming up, along with plenty of changes in my personal life. If all goes well I will be writing my next post from a new country.

  • Share/Bookmark