How does National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) help in protecting Indian agriculture?

1. NBA checks the biopiracy and protects the indigenous and traditional genetic resources.

2. NBA directly monitors and supervises the scientific research on genetic modification of crop plants.

3. Application for Intellectual Property Rights related to genetic/biological resources cannot be made without the approval of NBA.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

Official UPSC Civil Services Exam 2012 Prelims Part A

Answer 1

The correct answer is option 3.

Key Points

National Biodiversity Authority NBA checks the biopiracy and protects the indigenous and traditional genetic resources.
- National Biodiversity Authority is a statutory autonomous body under the Ministry of Environment, established in 2003 to implement the provisions under the National Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
- Headquartered in Chennai, India.
- It acts as a facilitative regulatory and advisory body to the Government of India on issues of conservation, sustainable use of biological resources.
Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC):
- The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is a statutory body constituted under the ‘Rules for the Manufacture, Use /Import /Export and Storage of Hazardous Microorganisms/Genetically Engineering Organisms or Cells, 1989’ notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
- The body also looks into proposals regarding the use of living modified organism that comes in the risk category III and above in the import/manufacture of recombinant pharma products, or where the end-product of the recombinant pharma product is a modified living organism.
- Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.