Opposing the GM (Genetically Modified) crop technology would take the country on a wrong path, Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said today.
“I am here to express my solidarity with scientists and support to biotechnology. Innovations happen only through research and experimentation. No one has a right to ban research and experimentation,” she said here at a meet of biotechnologists and farm scientists.
The meet, which also included heads of agri biotech industry, was organised in protest of the recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court of India (SCI).
The Supreme Court appointed five-member Technical Expert Committee on GM crops has recommended a 10-year moratorium on all field trials of GM crops.
“Those who oppose scientific research are not intellectually right and would take the country on a wrong path. Science and technology have done a lot to the country,” Mazumdar Shaw added.
Bangalore—based Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) Executive Secretary C Kameswara Rao said that the report submitted to the Supreme Court seems to rely entirely on the views of a select group of scientists and activists who oppose agri-biotech, ignoring all the others.
“The Indian farmers have to produce enough to meet the needs of growing population, without enlarging arable land or irrigation facilities in a fast changing climate,” he added.