Richard J.
Roberts, the 1993 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, on Tuesday (October 27, 2026) dismissed as “nonsense” the idea that Indians adopting genetically modified crops would become dependent on foreign companies. The work can be done in, and owned by, Indian laboratories, he said.
Dr. Roberts was delivering a plenary address at the second Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC), where scientists and technologists from across India gather over three days at Bharat Mandapam. ESTIC is a replacement for the Indian Science Congress, which was last held in 2023 after disagreements between the Department of Science and Technology and the Indian Science Congress Association.
‘Biosafety policy needed’
GM food crops have a contested history in India. This was after years of debate on its safety, the financial impact on farmers, and the implications of foreign ownership of the genetic modification technology. Asked whether Golden Rice could disturb India’s agricultural systems, citing the invasive spread of eucalyptus. Dr. India permits Bt cotton for commercial cultivation, but no GM food crop. their commercial release needs the Environment Minister’s approval, and the Minister is not bound by the regulator’s recommendation, as the Bt brinjal moratorium showed Although the Department of Biotechnology promotes GM crops. Dr. Roberts framed GM as a question of food and nutritional security.
In 2010, then-Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh imposed an indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal, a genetically-modified variant of the vegetable. In July 2024, the Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on GM mustard’s environmental release, but unanimously asked the Centre to frame a national policy on GM crops. Golden Rice, engineered in 1999 by Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer to carry a vitamin A precursor in its grain, has also proved divisive.
Because their farmers could not pay for it, crops eaten in developing countries, he argued, never received the breeding investment Western staples did.
Roberts said “he was not an expert in agriculture,” underlining that “there are people out there who truly are experts, who I guess can probably answer the questions that you have much better than I can. India needs a biosafety policy rather than a policy on GM crops, she said. “Food is medicine,” he said, for people who cannot afford supplements or drugs. “Golden Rice is not priced above ordinary rice, and several Indian government institutes hold licences for it,” he claimed.
Kavitha Kuruganti, who leads the Coalition for a GM-Free India, has previously argued that the yield claims for GM mustard, which was cleared by a technical body but whose release subsequently stalled, are not supported by the developers’ own data.
