India's Prime Minister Underscores Development and Safety of GMO Crops

India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh emphasized the safety of biotech/genetically modified (GM) crops during the 97^th Indian Science Congress held at the University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram on 3-7 January 2010. "The technology of genetic modification is also being extended to food crops though this raises legitimate questions of safety. These must be given full weight, with appropriate regulator control based on strictly scientific criteria," he said.

Inaugurating the 97th Indian Science Congress, Dr. Singh said the developments in biotechnology have the prospect of greatly improving yields in major crops by increasing resistance to pests and also to moisture stress. He said that the genetically modified Bt cotton was well accepted and made a great difference to production and its extension to food crops should be done following strictly scientific criteria. "Subject to these caveats, we should pursue all possible leads that biotechnology provides that might increase our food security as we go through climate related stress," he said.

More than 6000 participants representing various branches of science attended the largest national science event to address the challenges in frontier science and for cutting edge technologies for the future. The focal theme of this year's 97^th Indian Science Congress was "Science and Technology Challenges of 21^st Century-National Perspective", held jointly by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and University of Kerala.

For a copy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's  speech delivered during the 97th Indian Science Congress  visit http://pmindia.nic.in/lspeech.asp?id=872 For more information about the 97^th Indian Science Congress visit: http://isc2010.in:8080/isc/index.jsp  For information about biotech development in India contact b.choudhary@cgiar.org and k.gaur@cgiar.org