Supreme Court Orders GM Crop Policy for India’s Future

The Indian Supreme Court ordered the Union government to develop a nationwide genetically modified (GM) crop policy. This comes after a divided vote on GM mustard's environmental release. The court rekindled discussions on the role of genetically modified crops in India's food security and environmental safety by highlighting the need of public engagement.

GM Crops Controversy in India

• Pesticide-laced food, such as Bt cotton and GM mustard, in the Indian environment, health, and biosafety are threatened.
• Europeans are told that useful creatures such as bees may be threatened by old-school apparatus and so-called ‘gene cassettes’ with modified genes.
• Other options here are traditional methods of plant breeding and contemporary methods, but there are issues related to corporate control rather than public benefit.
• This judgment of the Supreme Court of India brings in a democratic principle in the framing of policies, and the farmers organizations have sought a policy decision insisting on consultation.
• Filled with gaps, India does not have any biosafety laws, leaving biosafety regulation in the country disintegrated.
• With regards to the issue of GM crops, states in India respond differently, this being due to the separation of powers between the federal and state governments.
• The new GM policy should focus priorities on the welfare of the farmers rather than profits. 
• Policy recommendations include the socio-economic aspect of the strategy for the development of agriculture and the multiplicity of the Indian geographies.