Biotech Updates

India’s NBRA Fully Functional in Two Years Time

May 18, 2007

The National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA), an independent science-based body, should be fully functional in two years time, said M.K. Bhan, Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology of India (DBT) during his keynote address at the Boston Convention Center during BIO 2007.

The NBRA will be administered by the Department of Biotechnology, of the Ministry of Science and Technology of India. The government is working closely with the US regulatory bodies such as FDA, EPA and USDA to evolve a world class robust science based regulatory structure to expedite application of biotechnology in agriculture, veterinary and medicine sector, said Dr Bhan.

An advanced school of learning will be a part of the regulatory body in order to update and equip regulators and scientists with the fast changing science of biotechnology. As far as agriculture sector is concerned, Dr Bhan stressed the need to deploy agri-biotech and termed it as a future of Indian agriculture. He said that India not only needs large quantity of food but of high quality too, since a large number of Indians are vegetarians. In this scenario there is a need for leveraging biotechnology to increase yield per hectare and also improve quality of crops.

For more information visit: http://www.ciionline.org/news_new/newsMain09-05-2007_2.asp or write to: b.choudhary@isaaa.org