Assignment I Scientific Communication Course By Shveta Jaishankar Integrated Ph.

D MBGU Report on Controversial Inter-academy Report regarding GM Crops sent to the Minister of State-Environment and Forest
At the request of Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment & Forests and Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Member of Planning Commission, an inter academy report was prepared by the six major Indian academies of science, engineering and medicine in September 2010 regarding the introduction of Genetically modified crops in particular Bt. Brinjal in terms of commercial use. On submission the report was found to be both plagiarised especially from an article authored by P. Anand Kumar in DBT Newsletter and showed no indication of rigorous scientific evaluation that has led to multiple controversial aspects and doubts that began to question the workings of the Indian academies. Genetically modified crops are those that have their genomes modified by insertion of genes that code for pest resistance, fertilizer, drought resistance or enhance nutritional value, taste and quality etc obtained from another organism such as bacteria using recombinant DNA technology. Hence they are also known as transgenic crops. For example Bt. Brinjal has the gene cry1Ac taken from bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis that code for a protein that infers resistance against lepidopteron insects. In India it was developed by MaHyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company). The bio safety of this transgenic crop was not completely confirmed by Expert committee I that said that it required additional tests to confirm its safety. While Expert committee II advised the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to recommend commercialization of the Bt brinjal. On clearing Bt. Brinjal for commercialization it met with a huge opposition from anti-GM activists, some scientist and farmers. This led to the development of Inter- academy report that was for limited circulation was rejected by the minister on multiple grounds. The report fails to appeal in many ways. In addition to plagiarism the report does not contain any references and citation and fails to acknowledge people involved in this decision. It completely overlooks the ethics involved in such issues. It only seems to

give a superficial summary on the debated topic .In depth survey and information is missing and there is lack of professionalism. Many questions seem to be unanswered. The report has concentrated more on explaining the basic facts in understanding what GM Foods are, their development and the world transgenic crop amount than important issues such as toxic concerns, bio safety, socio-economic importance that the country is widely debating upon. Even though detailed accounts on concerns of transgenic plant were given, it fails to deliver enough information to convince a layman to accept commercialization of GM Crops. The report seems to be very one sided, i.e. it concentrates and undoubtedly supports the commercialization of transgenic plants. There is no balance between the pros and cons of this issue. There is no evidence of scientific evaluations as mentioned earlier. No data, figures methodologies etc were mentioned that would be required for a report of national importance in the report that leads to a conclusion that there is improper scientific evaluation. For an issue of such importance the report seems to have given it least importance. Even though at first look the report seems to be genuine, it completely fails so by the end of the report. And finally the recommendation section in the report given by is not clear enough to decide whether commercialization of GM Crops is required. Even though several points are made that supports commercialization of GM Crops more specifically Bt. Brinjal, they do not seem very convincing both to the government and to the Indian citizens. Hence it seems perfectly fine to consider the report as scientifically invalid one. An updated version of the academy report included the references, along with a apology letter. But it seemed to have failed its main purpose. References -Websites http://www.ias.ac.in/academy/inter_academy/GMCrops-interAcademy-reportupdated.pdf http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/25oct2010/1011.pdf http://paraschopra.com/publications/gm.pdf http://subharmonics.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/transgenic-report-sep2010.pdf