Panel rejects Rasi Seeds’Bt cotton bid
New Delhi: The Genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC) has struck down the plea made by Rasi Seeds for commercial cultivation of its genetically modified (GM) RCH 2 Bt cotton seeds in the South, saying the product needs further field trials and evaluations. The panel has also decided to set up a mechanism for monitoring the performance of the approved Bt cotton crops from this khariff (summer) season. It has said no request has so far been received from the developers for field-trials/commercialisation of GM potato and that it cannot be approved during the current year. This statement of the GEAC, however, runs counter to the statement made by the biotech secretary Manju Sharma in a recent interview to BBC, where she had said GM potato would be released for commercial cultivation within six months. The 37th meeting of the GEAC here on Friday allowed multiplication of GM cotton seeds, namely RCH 20 Bt, RCH 138 Bt, RCH 134 Bt and RCH 144 Bt developed by Rasi Seeds in an area of 10 hectare to enable the company to generate seeds for large scale field trials during summer. It also noted that the RCH 2 Bt gave more seed cotton yield over the controlled cotton and in view of this it allowed seed production of this variety in 100,000 hca.
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Make full use of SEZs: Jaitley to US investors
New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Arun Jaitley has urged the US investors to take advantage of the special economic zones (SEZs) as also the agro-export zones set up in the country which have a great export potential. Arun Jaitley, union minister for commerce & industry and law & justice, is flanked by Jessical. T Mathews (L) , president of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Gautam Thapar, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (northern region) and managing director of BILT Ltd According to an official release, Jaitley told during talks with his American counterpart Donald Evans in Washington on June 11 that the SEZs with total or near total exemption from all duties presented a great opportunity for investment which the US business should exploit for manufacturing of merchandise as well as services.
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Iran moots C&S Asian Trade Bloc
New Delhi: Iran has proposed a trade bloc between the Central and South Asian countries comprising Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Speaking at a meeting organised by the All-India Association of Industries (AIAI) in Mumbai on Friday, Iranian ambassador to India Siavosh Yaghoobi said the trade bloc would help to usher in an era of peace, prosperity and well-being of member countries. Yaghoobi pointed out that the two-way trade between India and Iran had almost touched $2 billion. Iran has agreed to supply 5 million tonne of LNG valued at $4 billion. The ambassador said there was scope for co-operation between the two countries in transit and transportation. With the development of port of Cha-Bahar and a 200 km north-south road corridor linking Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and India, access would become easy to south Asian countries. The goods would move faster cutting down transportation costs, he added.
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