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Biotech. Bill likely to be introduced in monsoon session of Parliament
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Monday, 01 August, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Irum Khan, Mumbai
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The long-pending National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (NBRAI) Bill is likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning August 2. This was informed by a source from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to FnB News.
The source said that though Section 24 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, deals with certain regulations for the GM (genetically-modified) food, it is yet to be notified. Once the NBRAI comes into force, the Section could in all probability be diluted as the Authority will be a single governing body for all GM-related issues in the country.
“All crops, food, vaccines will be regulated by the BRAI except for food-labelling,” the source informed.
The establishment plan for the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority has been prepared by the Department of Biotechnology, under the ministry of science & technology in 2008.
The 2004 report of the Task Force on the Application of Agricultural Biotechnology chaired by Prof. M S Swaminathan (the Swaminathan Report) recommended the establishment of an “autonomous, statutory and professionally-led National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority” (NBRA) that would have “two separate wings – one dealing with food and agricultural biotechnology, and the other with medical and pharmaceutical biotechnology.” The report recommended that the “NBRA is essential for generating the necessary public, political, professional and commercial confidence in the science-based regulatory mechanism in place in the country.”
The extraordinary growth of the Indian biotechnology sector has significant implications for policy in the area of regulation, and two specific reports were commissioned by the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of environment and forests to evaluate the regulatory framework for products of agricultural biotechnology and recombinant pharmaceuticals, respectively.
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